The city of Issaquah is embarking on a year of economic development, or so it hopes.

While Mayor Ava Frisinger assembles a new department, which would focus on luring new businesses to town, City Council matched her vision by approving new plans to start an Economic Vitality Commission.

The idea is to get more business leaders involved with improving the city’s business environment and dedicating more city staff to making those changes happen.

Frisinger set economic development as the focus for the year in her annual address Monday. The mayor typically only gives two speeches at City Hall, the second when she delivers the budget.

As development in Talus and the Highlands winds down, the city is turning its resources to redeveloping the valley floor. The changes represent a pivotal moment in its history, Frisinger said in her speech.

City Council already set the stage for planning in December, when it approved Skip Rowley’s development agreement. His storage units and office parks make up the core of the valley floor.

By summer, council hopes to be voting the Central Issaquah Plan, a vision-casting document that would guide redevelopment for the rest of the valley floor.

While action for the mayor’s new department was encouraged by a recent Moss Adams report, City Council first planned for its commission during a goal setting retreat in May 2011.

A part of that particular goal was to improve signage rules. Business owners have complained about how the rigid regulations have made it difficult to mark their location much less attract new customers.

In addition to setting a business tone for the year, Frisinger laid out a number of successes including the opening of Swedish Hospital.

She also explained how her staff’s ability to rush plans for the YWCA’s Family Village in Issaquah made the low-income project possible.

“We were nimble enough to make it happen,” she said.