John Powers

"We've got a great staff, we've got great leaders, [such as] the president and the board of directors," he said. "I like being behind the scenes making a difference in people's life every day whether it be them or our residents."

Powers, 59, has more than 30 years of public and private experience. He studied architecture at the University of New Mexico, landscape architecture at Texas Tech University and business management at the University of Phoenix. Before coming to The Woodlands as the park superintendent in 1998, Powers said, he was the parks superintendent for Los Alamos, N.M., for eight years, a unique community that provided both city and county services.

How does working for The Woodlands compare to other cities ?

It doesn't at all. I don't think there's anything like the way The Woodlands is governed, functioned and operates. We're a very unique community, and that's what I love probably the most about it. There's nowhere else like it. But The Woodlands is different in that there are so many layers of agencies and organizations providing services. It takes all of those doing a great job for The Woodlands to function.

What are some of the challenges to maintaining all the parks, pathways and pools in The Woodlands?

We've got a great, talented, innovative staff. Providing them the resources, the training, the tools to be able to do their job well [is a challenge]. We have a high standard of expectation both from the community and our residents, but also internally of what we expect to do here—maintaining that high-quality uniformity and consistency throughout the whole community. We want our oldest parks and facilities to be as state of the art and well maintained as the latest, newest one, and to do that year after year.

What have been the challenges to getting more sports fields built?

Going back to the master plan and George Mitchell's vision back in the 70s, we didn't realize that youth sports would be so huge in the United States. So there [were not] large tracts of land set aside for these, so finding a suitable site has been the biggest challenge. Fortunately, just last month, the township and The Woodlands Development Company reached this agreement. And included in that, the Development Company is donating 26 acres off of Gosling for this sports complex. And the township board allocated about $9 million. We have about $6.3 million set aside for the development of that new sports complex.

How much reforestation is left from the historic 2011 drought?

We have had one large phase of reforestation. [We went to] the board [in November] with another award of bid for the second phase. And after this is completed, barring any major drought, we'll be back to our normal levels. We lost tens of thousands of trees, but through the board's support, community involvement, Arbor Day, in these three years we will have planted about 10,000 large trees and 300,000 seedlings.

How challenging is it to keep The Woodlands forested?

Our Integrated Forest Management Program has been supported, and it's a good, sound program. What we're seeing now with the commercial tracts being developed is that those commercial tracts are being deforested so that the office buildings and parking can be constructed. But the covenants and the standards of The Woodlands have always required the re-landscaping, reforestation and protection of the forest buffers. So while it might be a stark contrast when the site is first cleared, that clearing permit goes through a rigorous review process, and the landscape plan is very strenuous.

How has law enforcement evolved since you arrived?

When I came, we had five officers. Now we've got 89. It's been real exciting. I think our model of law enforcement for The Woodlands is the model for the United States. We have contracted with the Montgomery County Sheriff and Harris County Constable. So, again, it kind of goes with the uniqueness of The Woodlands in that law enforcement here is contracted with the agencies that are here and the zoning that we have for community policing, Alpha & Omega, park rangers [and] Town Center rangers. All of that layered approach I think is the model.