Reform of municipal government was a facet of a general reform movement that swept the nation around the turn of the century. In general, reformers favored efficiency, beauty and cleanliness, orderly planning, their interpretation of morality, and the imposition of business standards and practices upon government. Accepted in 1907, the Des Moines plan of government was an attempt by businessmen to apply these progressive reform principles to the operation of their municipality. In June of 1907, voters approved the changes as well as construction of a new city hall. The vote followed a two-year campaign involving enabling legislation, lawsuits, and a lengthy debate in the newspapers.

Like most American cities, Des Moines city government before 1908 consisted of a mayor and elected aldermen. Under the Des Moines Plan, the mayor and four commissioners were all elected at-large in non-partisan elections. Each elected commissioner and the mayor was responsible for a particular city department: streets and public improvements, parks and public property, public affairs, public safety, and accounts and finance. The first commissioner to serve over the Parks and Public Property Department was Commissioner J. Wesley Ash. In 1908 he announced plans to work with the Civic Improvement Committee regarding the Wetherell plan, termed the River Front Civic Center Plan.

As landscape architecture, municipal art and city planning gained increasing favor nationally, local architects turned to matters of site planning. At the request of the Civic Improvement Committee of the Greater Des Moines Committee (connected with the Commercial Clubs), Frank E. Wetherell prepared the "Plan of Improvement of River Front" in 1908. Wetherell was active in town planning, especially in his connection in the Civic Improvement Committee. This Civic Improvement Committee was a sub-committee of the Chamber of Commerce renamed in 1913 (earlier the Commercial Exchange.) In 1915, a sub-committee of the Chamber of Commerce created the Town Planning Committee. Two years later, this private group became the Town Planning Commission under the auspices of the City Council and city planning formally a part of city government. The new commission authorized reports on aspects of city planning. In 1917, they received a report from the Boulevard Committee (Ray F. Weirich, Frank E. Wetherell, Ralph Sawyer) on a proposed boulevard system. Lawsuits delayed completion of earlier plans until 1917. The Commission directed architect Ralph Sawyer to prepare plans to widen Court Avenue. Also in 1917 the Town Planning Commission received plans from Frank E. Wetherell for a $200,000 Natatorium. 

The Town Planning Commission was active in River Front development, but by 1921, they had shifted to favor a memorial hall to World War I veterans on the present site of the Armory Building.

City Hall looking west over the 
Des Moines River