When Paul Cote moved to the Imperial Oaks subdivision in 1993, there were 3,000 homes along the Rayford Road corridor. Twenty years later, Cote now resides in Legends Ranch, living in the same area that now includes more than 14,000 homes and could see another 7,000 built in the next few years.

Cote was named president of the Rayford Road Civic Association last year, a group whose goal is to unify the individual entities in the unincorporated region to improve the quality of life. Since the group formed, Cote has said he has seen cooperation between various entities that had never before occurred.

"Our meetings are interesting because the homeowner's group in Legends Ranch ends up meeting with someone from a homeowner's group in Spring Trails, and they start to establish a relationship with each other," Cote said. "Everybody's learning from each other, and that dynamic is really what this is all about."

Finishing up his first four-year term on the Municipal Utility District No. 89 board of directors in June, Cote has filed for a second term. He served for 10 years on the Emergency Services District No. 9 board beginning in 1995. A real estate agent since 2005, he first began serving his community as a volunteer firefighter for the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department in 1986, which led him to a position as a firefighter for the city of Conroe.

"I've been working in this area for 20 years and serving in this area for 20 years," he said. "If anyone thinks the Rayford Road Civic Association is going to be some kind of shooting star, that's not going to happen. We're going to be around for a while."

What has it been like to watch this community grow?

Being part of the RRCA, we've been studying the numbers, and from 1993 to 2013, the population itself in the ZIP code of 77386 has increased 425 percent. So it's been an amazing transformation as far as the number of people who actually live in this area, what used to be a quiet little two-lane road, which is what Rayford Road was back then. And it's transformed into what it is today. We have as many cars driving down Rayford Road every day as there are on Woodlands Parkway."

What kind of challenges does that growth bring to the area?

When I was on the ESD board, one of the difficulties was always trying to keep up with [growth] because when somebody moves in it may take 18 months to two years before [property tax] actually starts to roll back into our organization. So the curve was always to try and keep up, and I think that's the challenge with all of the organizations around here. You're always trying to accommodate the growth. You're always trying to keep up with it. For the most part, I thought we did a good job there because we purchased parcels of land for fire stations 10 years ago knowing [the growth] was coming.

What development is the Rayford Road corridor is lacking?

We could use a post office. There's no library. One of the only county facilities we have on the east side of the freeway—and it's a great facility—is the Spring Creek Greenway facility. We could use some more public facilities and parks, which there's really no one working on that stuff. Then there's the YMCA. I know there are some [groups] working on that, and there's the possibility of something in the near future. There's nothing definite at this time.

Do you feel the Rayford Road corridor gets overlooked?

Yes because the area lacks a unified approach at accomplishing tasks or projects. If we all operate in our own little realm as 11 different MUD districts, with the ESD not really communicating with the MUD districts, if we don't find a way to work together and have a unified approach toward getting those pieces that are going to be paid for by the county, the state and the federal level—I think that's where we've been living [now]. Until we unify those groups, then I think we will be overlooked. I don't think we will be because I think our existence and working together has already begun to accomplish things we never thought were going to happen.

What do you believe is the most significant challenge this area is facing?

They're all important. Obviously the things that people are most concerned about are crime and traffic. I know from our meetings and from our discussion with the residents who have been at our meetings, those are topics of discussion that are the most significant and the most prominent.

Have you been pleased with the RRCA's progression since its inception?

Absolutely. We're progressing. Our board, we all have jobs. It's a volunteer organization, but we have slowly begun to create a network of people in the area that work toward resolving little things. By working on the little things, the big things will come. I think sometimes just having the presence of the organization there is enough to trigger the completion of a project. People are realizing, 'We really need to pay attention to what's going on over here.'

What else is on the horizon for the Rayford Road Civic Association?

One of the things we're constantly doing is looking for individuals in the area who have the spirit to want to contribute a little bit of time back to their neighborhood or to this area on the MUD boards or the homeowner's association boards. We went to help bridge that activity and help assist those who want to be a part of that. We'd love to see somebody from our area represent [us on] the [Conroe ISD] board [of trustees] coming up at the end of the year. We are always looking for somebody who could represent our area on the school district board. That community spirit, we want to make that happen.