The East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) provides a forum for local governments of the bi-state St. Louis area to work together to solve problems that cross jurisdictional boundaries. The EWG region consists of the 4,500 square miles encompassed by the city of St. Louis and its surrounding seven counties: Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties in Missouri; and Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Illinois. East-West Gateway is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the St. Louis region, which means that the federal government and the states have given legal authority and responsibility to EWG for developing and adopting plans for the region’s surface transportation system. Most major road and transportation projects get a majority of their funding from the federal government and therefore must go through the EWG planning and approval process. East-West Gateway’s designation as a regional council of governments (COG) means that the agency has the civic responsibility for cooperative planning and problem-solving among any of its member local governments who want to work together for the common good. Although much of this cooperative planning takes place among the eight major jurisdictions of the region, it is not uncommon to find several small cities and towns clustered around a community betterment initiative started or overseen by East-West Gateway. These initiatives address issues as diverse as tax policy, environmental quality, public safety, workforce development, access to jobs, economic development, community planning, and others that might be of interest to members of the EWG Board of Directors.
