The Metropolitan Planning Association was formed to plan the city's postwar development. A banquet was held on August 31st 1943 at the Morton Hotel Banquet Room where ideas for a citizens planning committee were first discussed. An organization committee was created out of this meeting, and their efforts resulted in the creation of the MPA on October 16th 1943. The address of the association was registered at the 700 Michigan Trust Building.

Under the Articles of Incorporation, the purpose of the MPA is "To promote cooperation in the planning efforts by all local government units in the Metropolitan area of Grand Rapids, Michigan, including the City of Grand Rapids, the territory adjacent thereto, and the County of Kent; to prepare, adopt and promulgate scientific plans for the economic and social development of the areas described; to prepare and distribute literature in connection therewith, and to provide the public with information relating to proper municipal planning and development."

These materials were already organized into folders upon donation, and the contents have been processed to reflect the order of materials as we had received it.

In 2001, the minutes of the Metropolitan Planning Association (Accession number 1986.059) were added to this collection to be integrated with the Meade materials as one large MPA collection. These minutes were later removed in May 2012 and turned into Collection 389 to retain the original curated donation as it was given to us.