I think "seceding" really is a misnomer.
The article is using this in its title, but in its body talking of the suburbs wanting to incorporate into cities, which is what is happening.

Incorporation as a city is the normal, traditional right of a community which has always been in place historically. You don't exactly secede from your country when you are incorporating as a city. I think those places have every right to become cities themselves. That's exactly the point of the freedom to become a city. They gain freedom from iniquitous and oppressive local laws and regulations. I can only imagine how inhabitants of Belgian cities such as, say, Aalst, Bruges, Dendermonde, Verviers, and many, many others would react if they were told that someone wanted to "dissolve" their statute as a city...