The Downtown Sacramento Partnership on Wednesday identified its primary strategy to help drive downtown's economic development for 2010 and beyond.

The business group's board also voted to accept a study of the J-K-L corridor prepared by Downtown Works, a Washington, D.C. retail consultancy firm.

The full and final report was presented at the partnership's annual meeting, held Wednesday morning at the Citizen Hotel.

Within the next month or so, the business group will identify the "core" three to five strategies out of nearly 30 that were approved for 2010 through 2012.

"Probably the most important element that has come out of the study is to restate a concept that has long been considered an important element by the partnership, and that is to focus our efforts in order to maximize their impacts," said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, in a prepared statement.

Long-term goals include improving people's ability to walk, bike, drive or take public transit throughout downtown and to reconnect the central city grid, with two-way traffic on K Street from Old Sacramento to Midtown, according to a strategy report.

The group's strategy would be to support the identification and improvement of important pedestrian corridors and to support two-way car traffic starting with at least four blocks on K Street Mall and whenever other opportunities present themselves.

K Street is currently closed to traffic or no longer exists in several places, including through the middle of Westfield Downtown Plaza and the Sacramento Convention Center.

Another strategy is to collaborate on the vision and schedule to develop critical downtown assets, including the Downtown Plaza, city-owned parcels in the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street, relocation and replacement of the Greyhound Bus terminal and a downtown sports and entertainment arena.

The partnership wants to encourage "more balanced" housing options to include units that would fit a range of budgets, rather than a majority of single-residency occupancy units as currently exists.

The strategy would include collaborating with the city to improve the process for putting housing in vacant or under-used upper floors of existing buildings.

The group proposes finding funding partners and working with the city to develop a retail recruitment program, which would involve hiring a retail recruiter and developing incentives such as loans and façade grants to bring new retailers to the target area, the J-K-L corridor.

The group also proposes initiating a study of downtown infrastructure including water, sewer, electrical and cable; a new focus on Old Sacramento; maintaining K Street streetscape improvements as a priority and other strategies.

"Given the findings, downtown offers a significant opportunity to the city to invest in enhancing our urban center, which will offer consumers a unique experience not rivaled by other jurisdictions in the region and ultimately bring more revenue to the general fund through increased sales," Ault said.