There soon may be a new retail ring leader in Lawrence.

A city-appointed task force working to boost Lawrence’s retail industry said Tuesday that the community needs an organization that more actively promotes retail development. Members of the city’s Retail Task Force largely settled on the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce as the group most likely to fill that role.

“I have had multiple conversations with the chamber in my 26 years in business in Lawrence, and they have always made it clear they’re not real interested in retail,” said Leslie Alhert, owner of Stitch On Needlework Shop, 926 Mass. “I think that ought to change.”

The chamber’s leader said he thought so too. Tom Kern, president of the chamber, said the group historically had taken a laissez-faire approach to retail development, assuming that as job and housing numbers grew so would retail. But Kern said he saw value in being more proactive if it helped cut down on the number of people leaving Lawrence to shop for goods.

City Commissioner Rob Chestnut, who chairs the task force, said he envisions the chamber playing a lead role much as it does on attracting and assisting industrial companies.

“I think somebody has to be tasked with it, or else it just doesn’t get done,” Chestnut said.

A key part of the effort may be a new study that the task force agreed to ask for as part of their report. The task force agreed to ask the City Commission to seek proposals for a new retail strategies report that would gather data about the type of sales occurring in Lawrence and what type of goods shoppers are most likely to leave the city to buy.

The new report could cost upward of $70,000, but task force members said the city also should examine buying a subscription to less expensive databases and then have a city staff person interpret the data. City commissioners likely will consider the issue later this month.

Kern said the chamber could make good use of the information by seeing what type of products are lacking in Lawrence.

“I think our strategy always would be to approach our existing retailers about filling that niche,” Kern said. “But if everybody took a pass, then I think it would be fair to try to recruit somebody.”

The task force expects to present its final report to commissioners in early 2011.