New survey results showed residents are overall "very satisfied" with living in The Woodlands, but they also noted a number of concerns such as the potential for overdevelopment.

Two-minute impact

The Woodlands Township holds a biennial resident survey which provides feedback to township staff regarding services and needs from residents. Lori Mitchell Dixon, president, owner and project director of Great Lakes Marketing, presented the results to the township Feb. 26.

Dixon said the top five things which keep residents in The Woodlands has remained the same since 2018: beauty, green spaces, safety, quality of life and aesthetics.
"This [survey] has been customized for the things that your community cares about, which is why creating these baselines have been so important and valuable over the years," Dixon said. "I would use your own community as a benchmark, and the fact that you have sustained those very high scores for so many years ... that I think is more relevant than how you're doing compared to somebody else."

Diving in deeper


According to information provided by the township, 7,600 surveys were sent to residents via mail, and 1,446 responses were provided by mail and online. One change made in the data collection for the 2024 study was the collection of roughly 200 social media responses, which were not included in the presentation to the board due to concerns regarding the scientific merit of the data, Dixon said.

However, one notable change was a shift to concerns surrounding overdevelopment in The Woodlands.
"Looking at the data across all of the questions, I think that development initiatives probably will get some pushback," Dixon said. "They probably need to be communicated and presented very carefully, given the general sentiment that you find within the survey results."

Looking ahead

Brad Bailey, chair of The Woodlands Township board of directors, said he would also like to have the social media information included to prevent the survey only being a "rosy" report in the future.


"What gets measured gets done," Bailey said. "I'd like to see some of the other things that we could that might be opportunities for us to even get better."

Dixon also said that there may be room for the board to adjust language in the survey going forward to encourage additional open-ended feedback and ensure residents understand which services fall under the jurisdiction of the township.