College Park

"You have a general plan in mind, but there are always changes to be made, especially when the population changes and additional land is bought," he said.

In fact, the village has the most variety of uses of any village in The Woodlands, said Robert Heineman, vice president of planning for The Woodlands Development Company.

Before the educational amenities were established, the area east of I-45, which is also considered College Park, was called Trade Center, a rail-served collection of warehouse facilities primarily used for light assembly manufacturing, Heineman said.

Eckerd Drug Corp. was one of the first companies to have a distribution center there, he said.

However, although there were several hundred acres of land available for development, only a few of them offered rail access. In addition, competition in the Houston area to attract rail-served manufacturing and distribution companies was fierce because of access to the Houston Ship Channel, Heineman said.

"At that time, if you looked at rail property in the Houston area, there was more property than there were uses for it, so it became apparent that we didn't have a use for all of that property as rail-served distribution," Heineman said.

When North Harris-Montgomery Community College, now Lone Star College, was looking for a location in the area, The Woodlands jumped at the chance, designating 100 acres in 1993. The University Center, a central location where several universities can offer programs, was built two years later.

It was also then that several other plans were coming together: construction of The Woodlands Mall was wrapping up and developers were working to get Hwy. 242 constructed as a divided, four-lane boulevard.

The Woodlands contributed several millions of dollars to construct the road, which ended up taking a number of years to complete, Galatas said.

"I remember going to the groundbreaking for the college, and the road was not built at that time," he said. "We were always going a little above and beyond what was required, and the developers had faith we would get things done."

There is still undeveloped land owned by The Woodlands along I-45.

College Park continues to be part of the ongoing and innovative development plan for The Woodlands, Galatas said.