Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "j-k-l corridor"

No longer a ‘pedestrian mall,’ K Street prepares for cars

2011-07-12T02:39:31Z

On Tuesday evening, the City Council will consider revising a local ordinance that will bring the city one step closer to seeing cars on K Street for the first time in more than 45 years.

The revised ordinance will change a city code that has been in place since the early 1960s that defined the five blocks of K Street between Eighth to 12th streets as a “pedestrian mall,” closing it to vehicular traffic.

“It was something that was happening in a lot of places back then,” said Denise Malvetti, department manager at the city’s Economic Development Department. “Cities were trying to replicate the suburban experience, and they created a lot of these pedestrian malls. It was a failed experiment, though.”

Roughly 150 cities in the U.S. installed pedestrian malls in the 1960s, Malvetti said, and now about half of those have converted back to allow street traffic.

“We’ve been working on getting cars back on K Street since late 2008,” Malvetti said. “We’ve put a lot of consideration into this project, and we did a lot of outreach to the community.”

Business owners were outspoken in saying that returning cars to K Street is vital to increasing retail activity in the area, Malvetti said, but they won’t see an instant change.

“It will likely be an incremental increase over time,” Malvetti said.

City Council recently approved numerous projects intended to revitalize the J-K-L corridor, and K Street in particular, in order to stimulate economic activity in the area and bring people back to what was once a hub of activity in the city, Malvetti said.

The “Cars on K Street” project was part of a $2.7 million construction and design project approved by City Council in April 2010.

The purpose of the project, according to a staff report, is to “increase access and visibility to businesses, promote a safe environment, stimulate additional economic activity, and improve (traffic) circulation.”

“Sacramento needs to be more pedestrian-friendly,” said Councilman Steve Cohn, “but the way that part of K Street is laid out, it wasn’t working as a pedestrian-only street.”

Cohn said returning cars to K Street makes sense because it will help with traffic flow and make it easier for people to get to the businesses along that part of K Street.

In order to allow for the reintroduction of cars on K Street from Eighth to 12th streets, the city code must be amended to remove the definition of “pedestrian mall” currently applied to those five street blocks.

According to provisions in the city charter, the council must first pass the revised ordinance for publication, and then it can finalize the approval at the following City Council meeting.

This is one of the last steps before construction can begin, Malvetti said. The Department of Transportation will bring a construction contract to City Council next week for approval, and then groundbreaking can begin within the first week of August.

Design plans for the “Cars on K Street” project include creating new crossing signals at 11th and K streets, wheelchair access at intersections and the addition of edge treatments (possibly planters or street furniture) to provide a buffer between the roadway and sidewalks to increase pedestrian safety and make the blocks more visually appealing.

“Our goal is to have cars back on K Street in early November,” Malvetti said. “It’s one more step in the revitalization of K Street.”

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Downtown is focus for urban design experts

2011-02-17T02:04:29Z

Sacramento needs to build a better image for its downtown, and Downtown Plaza should be “ground zero” for change, urban design experts said Wednesday.

City and business leaders often refer to the heart of downtown as the J-K-L Corridor, named for the major streets the area is built on.

But referring to downtown that way promotes the idea that it's just an area to move through on the way to somewhere else. The city needs to focus on creating a downtown district that becomes the center of the city, said Betsy Jackson, president of The Urban Agenda Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Stop thinking and speaking of this as a corridor," Jackson said at City Hall during a presentation by a team of urban design and city planning experts.

Mayor Kevin Johnson invited the six-person team to visit the city through a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative called the Mayors' Institute on City Design. The program is offered in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the United States Conference of Mayors.

The institute holds six to eight such workshops throughout the country each year. The team was brought to Sacramento to help support ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown.

The team spent two and a half days touring Sacramento, learning from local stakeholders and developing guiding principles and recommendations. Those stakeholders – city staff, labor officials, artists and business owners – attended the presentation.

Echoing the concerns of all local stakeholders, the team identified major change at Westfield Downtown Plaza as downtown's top redevelopment priority.

The 1970s-era shopping mall is a visual and physical barrier that helps disconnect downtown from the central city's grid and doesn't contribute as much as it could to downtown's economy. The city should consider replacing the internally focused plaza with externally focused mixed uses such as retail, office and residences, said Graham Stroh, a program manager with the American Architectural Foundation.

"That is probably ground zero for Sacramentans," he said.

The team offered plenty of other ideas. They include:

• Improve downtown's connections to its near neighborhoods;
• Invest in quality for streetscape, landscaping, parks, trash pickup, maintenance and graffiti prevention/removal;
• Activate public spaces year-round with events and recreation that draw different demographic groups and make use of undeveloped lots;
• Promote informal, spontaneous uses of public spaces and different activities for different sites;
• Enhance major streets with more landscaping and a green infrastructure of open space and natural areas, starting with 10th and J streets, then expanding to I Street and beyond;
• Educate property owners and residents about the economic benefits of preserving and adapting historic properties, such as Sacramento's original street level hidden away in basements and hollow sidewalks;
• Reform permitting and regulations to make development less confusing, less expensive and less time-consuming;
• Build safety by adding downtown guides at night;
• Review efficiency of one-way streets;
• Improve on the almost-nonexistent access to Sacramento and American rivers;
• Build downtown's identity through mid-rise buildings that stand out from the low-rise residential buildings of surrounding neighborhoods.

The city should develop a "customer service approach" to building downtown and its image, Jackson said.

"The idea is you need to sweat these details," she said.

The other people on the team were Brad Cownover, a regional landscape architect with the U.S. Forest Service in Portland; Mark Dawson of Sasaki Associates in Boston; and Keith Lichten with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The team will present a final plan to the city within two weeks. The plan will be posted on the city's website and then used to continue a conversation about changing downtown, said Kunal Merchant, Johnson's chief of staff.

Downtown group creates economic development strategy

2009-12-17T03:31:20Z

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.

Report: J-K-L focus must be residents

2009-11-19T05:44:13Z

If you build it, they will come.

What's been said about baseball diamonds in Iowa is now being said for downtown Sacramento's future retail market, according to a retail consultancy firm that has just finished a study of the J-K-L corridor.

In this case, "they" represent 72 percent of the greater Sacramento area's 1.65 million population: "urban chic" Sacramentans who own homes in the central city; young, child-free metrorenters; "in style" suburbanites who love the gritty city; long-time residents and new homeowners living just outside the core; and connoisseurs who want the best of everything, said Scott Schuler with Downtown Works of Washington, D.C.

"You have got to draw people from the entire market. The number of people downtown is not enough," Schuler said Wednesday when the firm presented a draft report to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership board, Mayor Kevin Johnson and city employees. The figure is based on demographic and lifestyle data other companies have produced for Sacramento.

The news that Sacramento's historic retail core could thrive once more by catering to residents throughout the region was a surprise to those who have long thought the area should be developed to attract travelers and the most wealthy residents.

"That is enough to support downtown if we have the right kind of market," said DSP Chair Kipp Blewett. "The future of downtown is going to be in the renaissance of the urban core."

While visitors remain important to the economy, they spend much more on food and beverages than retail. In addition, visitors want to experience the real city, Schuler said.

"They want to go where residents go," he said. "You don't market to them."

The city has focused strongly on bringing more nightlife and entertainment to K Street Mall. But the area needs at least as many, and possibly more, day-time uses, said Midge McCauley, also with Downtown Works, which prepared the report for the DSP and the city.

Downtown Works studied groundfloor spaces on J, K and L streets between 7th and 12th streets, and on the sidestreets of 9th to 11th streets in that area. About 18,000 people live downtown in 700 single-residency occupancy hotels and 220 market-rate housing units. The area includes 700 single-residency occupancy units and 220 market-rate housing units. About 18,000 people are estimated to live within a one-mile radius of 9th and J streets — a number the consultants pointed out as too low to support retail in the J-K-L corridor. About 93,000 people work downtown, she said.

Out of 231 total spaces, 57, or 25 percent, are vacant. Many current storefronts are "shabby" and "dated." Sandwich board signs and dead plants, replaced with new landscaping only recently, pull the area down, McCauley said. Obstructed sight lines are another problem, said McCauley, who recommended removing ticket vending machines and ramps

Only 10 percent of the 174 that are occupied are dedicated to selling retail goods. And out of 103 retail spaces that house restaurants, clubs or shops selling goods, Downtown Works identified only 12 percent as desirable enough to keep, she said.

Quality retailers have unique, attractive storefronts with distinctive, eye-level signs and appealing window displays, good merchandise that is well organized and a clean, well-maintained store.

The proposed solution: hire a "retail recruiter" whose job is to find urban pioneers — innovative retail entrepreneurs from near and far willing to open up shop in the city's risky downtown retail corridor. Arm the recruiter with the latest data on available property and financial incentives to lure retailers who agree with the vision to revitalize the area, McCauley said.

Undesirable tenants could be phased out as their contracts come up. The retail mix needs much more variety, such as apparel, outdoor goods, shoes, accessories and home furnishings. The mix should be unique — not something already offered in shopping malls. Independent stores should be focused on first, and chains that aren't overly represented in the market should be considered later, she said.

They recommend allowing cars on the entire K Street Mall, rather than a one- or two-block pilot which people are unlikely to use. The firm also recommends lower-level planters over trees, which they said block sight lines, tear up sidewalks and obstruct signs.

"People love their trees but trees are a retailer's nightmare," McCauley said.

Programs could be developed to offer facade grants and forgiveable loans for businesses that remain for at least five years, with 20 percent of the loans forgiven each year. Downtown Works recommended the first three to five pioneers get loans of $300,000 to $500,000. Other new businesses that fit the vision might get $20,000 to $100,000, McCauley said.

"We know those early deals are often the hardest ones to make," said McCauley, adding that the first deal would take a year to a year and a half if a recruiter began work today.

The DSP board members now must agree on whether to support the recommendations and then vote on formal adoption in December. Blewett said it was too early to discuss funding sources for such programs. However, if the city were to provide $1 to $2 million from the general fund, that could generate much more tax revenue for the city, he said.

Blewett pointed to Sean Kohmescher, who owns Temple coffee and teahouse on 10th Street, as the type of urban pioneer the corridor needs more of.

"He's young. He's entrepreneurial. He's committed to downtown," Blewett said. "Look what he did with a lot of elbow grease and some guts."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial department corrected a fact in the above article after the article was published. The original sentence is denoted with strike-through text, with the new sentence proceeding it.