Woodlands: The inside Story of Creating a Better Hometown

Book Description
This book tells the story of The Woodlands, one of the most successful master-planned communities in the United States. Built from the ground up near Houston, beginning in the 1960s, The Woodlands is not just another suburban housing development. It is a new "hometown" where people live, work, shop, and become involved in their community in a way not often seen in modern-day America. Told as a first-person series of reminiscences by an insider directly involved in The Woodlands’ development, this book takes you "behind the scenes" and tells you the stories of the people who were instrumental in building the community and of the challenges they faced. It provides a little-known account of how they wrangled with governments and school districts, dealt with near bankruptcy, figured out what worked and what didn’t, and influenced and changed the decisions of the planners and developers along the way. A novel concept for its time, The Woodlands was born from the vision of George Mitchell, a self-made oil and gas tycoon, who turned to real estate development to diversify his business, and the federal government’s experiment in support of the development of new suburban towns that would attract people from problem-plagued cities. Brought back from the brink of financial disaster in its formative years, The Woodlands grew into a healthy adulthood and a solid business success. Today, The Woodlands is home to over 75,000 residents and 3,000 employers, and it is still growing. What makes it a real hometown is not just where people sleep at night, but where and how they spend the rest of the day: The Woodlands community has won international acclaim for its successful mix of commercial, retail, and residential components; its ability to attract and sustain jobs; and for its protection of the natural environment.


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This book tells the story of The Woodlands, one of the most successful master-planned communities in the United States. Built from the ground up near Houston, beginning in the 1960s, The Woodlands is not just another suburban housing development. It is a new ￯﾿ﾽhometown￯﾿ﾽ where people live, work, shop, and become involved in their community in a way not often seen in modern-day America.   Told as a first-person series of reminiscences by an insider directly involved in The Woodlands￯﾿ﾽ development, this book takes you ￯﾿ﾽbehind the scenes￯﾿ﾽ and tells you the stories of the people who were instrumental in building the community and of the challenges they faced. It provides a little-known account of how they wrangled with governments and school districts, dealt with near bankruptcy, figured out what worked and what didn￯﾿ﾽt, and influenced and changed the decisions of the planners and developers along the way.   A novel concept for its time, The Woodlands was born from the vision of George Mitchell, a self-made oil and gas tycoon, who turned to real estate development to diversify his business, and the federal government￯﾿ﾽs experiment in support of the development of new suburban towns that would attract people from problem-plagued cities.   Brought back from the brink of financial disaster in its formative years, The Woodlands grew into a healthy adulthood and a solid business success. Today, The Woodlands is home to over 75,000 residents and 3,000 employers, and it is still growing. What makes it a real hometown is not just where people sleep at night, but where and how they spend the rest of the day: The Woodlands community has won international acclaim for its successful mix of commercial, retail, and residential components; its ability to attract and sustain jobs; and for its protection of the natural environment.


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