The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (ZMVM) takes effect this Wednesday, August 26, with 84 municipalities and alcaldías: Mexico's Official Gazette (Diario Oficial de la Federación) published the Amendment Declaration on August 25, incorporating Morelos into the zone for the first time, according to El Financiero.
The coordination agreement was signed on August 3 by the federal government, Mexico City, and the governors of the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Morelos, with the participation of the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development (Sedatu). The inclusion of the municipality of Huitzilac, Morelos, follows the Valle de México Master Plan, which identified strong functional and environmental interdependence between the southern region and the capital. The new boundary formally brings nearly 23 million inhabitants under a single planning framework, according to Sedatu, in a mega-region that generates approximately 25 percent of national GDP and concentrates more than 21.4 percent of the country's productive establishments, according to the study cited by El Financiero.
With the Declaration taking effect, the ZMVM is now composed of:
- the 16 alcaldías of Mexico City;
- 59 municipalities of the State of Mexico;
- 8 municipalities of Hidalgo, including Tizayuca and Tula de Allende;
- the municipality of Huitzilac, Morelos.
The boundary does not merge governments or create new laws or direct local budgets; it functions as a reference framework for designing policies of metropolitan interest, including water management, mobility and public transportation, the environment, and public safety. The next instrument is the update of the Valle de México Metropolitan Zoning Program (POZMVM), in force since 1999, whose preparation was authorized for public consultation following approval of the August 3 agreement, according to La Jornada.
Public consultation on that program is the next step, and will define specific policies on water, mobility, and land-use planning for the country's most populous region. That consultation will show how the 84-municipality-and-alcaldía boundary translates into shared planning decisions among four governments.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.