Sve intenzivnije širenje grada preko gradskih granica u procesu metropolitanizacije dovodi do specifičnog odnosa grada i njegove uže i šire okoline. Razlažu se različite metode rješavanja problema odnosa grada i gradskog ruba. Na primjeru Grada Zagreba ukazuje se na brojne teritorijalne promjene u posljednjih 50-ak godina koje su redovito zanemarivale ovu problematiku.The area of the urban fringe requires certain measures of influence, supervision and planning of the city centre because of the real or potential spreading of the city. Appropriate measures applied in various countries of the world are determined: metaterritorial authority of city centres over the urban fringe, cooperation in performing specific services for the urban fringe, metropolitan councils, district urbanization, merging of cities and districts, annexation, metropolitan federations, metropolitan area as a new type of an administrative unit, functional linking of a city with its surroundings and forming ad hoc bodies (special districts) for performing utility activities in the metropolitan area. The example of the city of Zagreb in the past 50 or so years shows great frequency of territorial changes. The City keeps including and excluding the urban fringe into and from its area, without a clear vision and strategy of long-term development. One of the factors which influence the spreading of the city centre over its surroundings is primarily the action radius of particular (most frequently utility) city services. The logic of the objective to be achieved by city services affects their territorial configuration which no longer has to coincide with the formal city boundaries. Each service establishes its own area of operation which only depends on its technical abilities and capacities. Zagreb is, however, an example of a city in which a great number of city utility services still do not reach as far as its formal city boundaries, which greatly obstructs the process of metropolization, i.e. spreading of the city over the urban fringe area. As a solution to this problem, gradual formation o f a metropolitan federation of the city and its close city surroundings is suggested