What's the True Cost of Incorporation?

Between its construction boom and the slow greening of a city awash in oil money, it’s easy to see why Houston is one of the nation’s fastest growing cities. But bustling metro area suburbs like the Woodlands also play a large part in the city’s continued economic recovery and population growth spurt.

In the past decade, the population of the lush, sprawling suburb has doubled, up from 56,000 in 2000 to 112,000 in 2011. Yet despite being a fully functional town that is home to more than 100,000 people, The Woodlands isn’t a proper city. The master-planned community is still known as a township or CDP, a census-designated place, and is one of the few surviving relics of the post-Levittown suburban planning boom that still boasts annual growth.