Sentence Correction

More and more in recent years, cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development and investing millions of dollars in cultural activities, despite strained municipal budgets and fading federal support.
(A) to greater economic development and investing
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of

IMO A
Source 1000 SC Question 510

Truely speaking, I couldn't able to find which one is idiomatically correct: means to, means of or means for. Therefore, I tried to look for other mistakes. In GMAT world, 'Economically' means using frugally. Hence, "development economically" is wrong. Option B and D ruled out. Conjunction 'and' means, look for parallelism. What cities are doing? 1. stressing and 2. investing. Hence, IMO A

as a means to ---- is the correct idiom.

According to OG 12, Question 72, Page 721:

'as a means to' 'a method for achieving....'
'as a means of' means 'a kind of' (???) Probably, it means one of the methods of, an example of the methods of.......

'as a means for' is not idiomatic