Higher districts like states or federal governments, already have the power to create subdistricts with favourable leadership and goals. They're just uninterested in doing so.

In the past, incorperated townships were created for specific goals: we have a coal mine here, create a township around it. Today, that kind of top-down leadership is no longer used so widely.

California could carve out a new township, and use its state budget to incentivize the development of an urban region with cheap housing, high tech jobs, and interesting culture. They do not do so out of choice, not out of inability.