Metro Council has promoted a level of public interest within and beyond local government that matches the seriousness of the choices the region faces. We've accomplished some things that could not be done without the suburbs working with the city and with each other. Not to Mr. DeLong. When the city's contract with Grand Rapids Township expired in 1997, Mr. DeLong and his colleagues began thinking hard about how to use the vast network of pipes to rein in sprawl. Traditionally Grand Rapids, like most other providers, would automatically extend lines to customers to encourage new development.
Infrastructure then can serve as a built-in regional regulator.
That is precisely what Grand Rapids and its customers are doing. City officials worked closely for two years with colleagues from Ada and Gaines townships, and from East Grand Rapids and the North Kent Sewer Authority, to draw an urban service boundary, an actual line on a map that determines how far water and sewer lines will extend into the countryside over the next generation. It is the first of its kind in the Midwest. The nine other cities and townships are expected to approve the agreement as their old contracts expire. Mr. DeLong explains that it is flexible at the start, but will become more rigid.