Council of governments


Councils of governments are regional governing and/or coordinating bodies that exist throughout the United States. CoGs are normally controlled by their member local governments, though some states have passed laws granting CoGs region-wide powers over specific functions, and still other states mandate such councils.

Organization and function

CoG members are drawn from the county, city, and other government bodies within its area. CoGs can offer planning, coordination, and technical assistance to their members, administer programs at a regional level, and act as intermediaries between the local government members and the state or federal government. A typical council is defined to serve an area of several counties, and addresses issues such as regional and municipal planning, economic, and community development, pollution control, transit administration, transportation planning, human services, and water use. Councils of governments also play a role in regional hazard mitigation and emergency planning and in the collection, analysis, distribution of demographic and cartographic/GIS data.

Federal transportation planning

CoGs may either be distinct from—or encompass—regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Rural Transportation Planning Organizations. MPOs are multi-governmental urban transportation planning entities that arose out of the requirements of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which made federal financing for urban transportation projects contingent upon the existence of a "continuing, comprehensive, urban transportation planning process undertaken cooperatively by the states and local governments". RTPOs are bodies similar to, and inspired by the model of MPOs, but organized for rural areas. Though RTPOs existed for decades, they were only formally recognized by on a federal level by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act of 2012. Of the 556 CoGs in the US, 165 operate an associated MPO, and 265 operate an associated RTPO.

History

Though voluntary non-profit regional organizations had existed for several decades before, CoGs in their modern form began in 1947, with the Atlanta Regional Metropolitan Planning Commission, followed by the Northern Virginia Regional Planning Commission in December of the same year. By 1950, there were 18 CoG/regional planning organizations in the US, and by 1953, the number of such bodies had increased on 40. CoGs saw explosive growth during the 1960s and 1970s, driven by federal and state funding incentives and mandates. At present, the National Association of Regional Councils estimates that currently "of the 39,000 local, general purpose governments in the United States a total of more than 35,000 are served by ".

National and state organizations

Several national organizations exist to serve the needs regional CoGs. These include the National Association of Regional Councils, the National Association of Development Organizations, and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations.

Regional councils of governments

Similar voluntary associations also exist at the state level. An alternative to the bottom-up model for state-level associations of CoGs are regional state-designated planning and development regions—groups of CoGs organized by state governments. Some of the regional councils of governments include: