One month after a margarita festival hosted at Northshore Park drew ire from nearby residents, The Woodlands Township board of directors revised its special events policy to protect residents from similar
scenarios in the future.

“Many people enjoyed [the festival], but residents did not,” said Chris Nunes, parks and recreation department director. “It was not necessarily in the right park at the right place.”

During the April 27 board of directors meeting, the board approved policy revisions stating commercial use of township parks for special, for-profit events will be limited to Town Green Park and three sports complexes in the community.

“I think this gives us more ability to the put the right event in the right park,” Nunes said.

On the day of the margarita festival, the township received a number of resident complaints regarding noise from the event and restricted access to the park, which was a violation of the permit.

“Allowing a festival promoting heavy drinking is not acceptable in our family-oriented community,” said Bill Malone, Windward Cove homeowners association president. “This was compounded by being held on Easter weekend, making it all the more inappropriate.”

Windward Cove resident Scott Cutler said he was also disrupted in his home by the festival.

“We couldn’t walk our dogs, we couldn’t bring our children [to the park] and we could not watch TV in our own home,” he said.

Although the festival garnered numerous complaints, it did meet initial standards on paper to receive a permit from the township. Groups interested in hosting an event at a township park submit an application online and answer several questions to determine if a permit is necessary. The next step is a full application including a site plan, parking plan and security details that must be approved by staff.

In this particular case, the promoter indicated they expected 1,000 people to attend, although it far exceeded 1,000, said John Powers, assistant general manager of community services.

“The parking was arranged through a license with Aon Hewitt across the street so the pieces seemed to fit together well,” he said. “As the process proceeds, I’m the one who does the final review and signs the permit, and on this particular [event] there was oversight on my part on the stage, its size and orientation of how it directly affected Windward Cove and Herald Oaks.”

Moving forward, Nunes said both residents and parkgoers have to be respectful of one another to find a balance during special events.

“I like the idea of moving the commercial events to the commercial Town Center area,” township Director Gordy Bunch said. “I think that gives clarity to the groups that come here to put on events, and it protects residents from adjacent for-profit nuisances.”