The Issaquah City Council has authorized work on proposals for a project that will represent its vision for the future of central Issaquah.

The resolution passed unanimously at the Sept. 21 council meeting and tasked city staff with developing an “anchor project” that will represent the urban village envisioned in the Central Issaquah Plan, the sweeping sustainable urban density program passed by the council in 2012.

Staff won’t be developing their plans without guidance. Over eight months of meetings in the fall of 2014, the city Economic Vitality Commission identified four sites for potential projects and developed mock project concepts for each.

Identified potential project sites were CenturyLink Yard; the intersection of Northwest Gilman Boulevard and Fourth Avenue Northwest; a portion of Front Street North immediately north of the Interstate 90 interchange; and 12th Avenue Northwest, where the road is divided by I-90.

The resolution does not obligate city staff to develop any of the commission’s proposals and they may develop an entirely new concept.

“We didn’t want to limit it to the four proposals the commission discussed,” City Councilor Mary Lou Pauly said.

In brainstorming potential projects, the Economic Vitality Commission leaned on the academic concept of “the third place” in community building, commissioner Mariah Bettisse said. In his book “The Great Good Place,” urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg defined the third place as a community gathering place other than home or work.

Consequently, three of the commission’s four proposals include public gatherings as a primary or secondary feature. One exception was the proposal for 12th Avenue Northwest, which involved a pedestrian crossing linking the divided portions of the road through I-90.

Though Tola Marts told his fellow councilors he supported the resolution, he added that he was concerned about a provision that allowed staff to develop a mock proposal not intended for completion.

“There’s a principle in physics that an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion, and this is true in government as well,” Marts said. “We have a history of getting rolling on major projects and then we put deadlines in front of them and then we pass legislation.”