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FM Metro COG History
On October 17 and 18, 1961, at the North Dakota State Capitol
Building, state and regional engineers, planners and administrators
met to continue discussing the use of funds from the Urban Renewal
Administration to complete planning studies in the state…in
particular the Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN, urbanized area. By
the end of the meeting a tentative outline had been created for
a Fargo-Moorhead Transportation Study and procedures for organizing
the effort had been agreed upon. Thus, the first multi-jurisdictional
growth plan for the Fargo-Moorhead urbanized area had began.
A year and a half (and dozens of meetings by various committees)
later the first meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Fargo-Southwest
Fargo-Moorhead-Dilworth Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Planning
and Traffic Study was held on March 21, 1963. This was the first
meeting of what would become today’s Metro COG Policy Board.
In the years to come the organization would see many changes.
The organization’s lengthy name has changed, though often
ever so slightly, several times since 1963 to arrive at its current
form: The Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments,
or Metro COG for short. Originally the Metro COG worked primarily
with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (better know
as HUD). Today Metro COG works with the Federal Highway Administration
and the North Dakota and Minnesota Departments of Transportation
to conduct planning efforts and to assist in obtaining the construction
funds necessary to improve the quality of life in the metropolitan
area. Staff and staff size have fluctuated over the years. However,
many of COG’s former employees are now employees of the
local municipalities, thus, keeping their multi-jurisdictional
planning experience and skills in the area.
With time change is inevitable, and Metro COG looks forward to
being part of that change. But Metro COG’s mission to serve
the local municipalities and citizens of the Fargo-Moorhead area
in planning for their future and assisting in obtaining funding
for improving their infrastructure will continue..
