**4. Conclusions**

We often have seen New Towns as solution for the problems of housing cost, social integration or urban growth. Most of these New towns are planned in order to clear big cities and for this reason, most of them are close to them. The successful ones are those that do not end as suburbs of the big city. As we could see in our examples none of them end as a suburb, they have become independent cities where between 30 and 40 per cent of population work in the New Town.

Like all New Towns, The Woodlands and Tres Cantos began as "satellite" towns, but in time they grew and became "independent". The Woodlands is an unincorporated town that operates independently of city government. Its three Associations provide municipal-type services to residents. Tres Cantos is an independent municipality with its own local government. They are also a model for planned development and environmental protection; The Woodlands is one of the greenest communities in the country (5.000 acres of green space).

78,74

The Gross Domestic Product per capita is 68.840€ and as we can see in figure 4 most comes from service sector. It comes to the city 30.000 workers from others municipalities close to Tres Cantos to work in. This economic development is due to its localization. It is really close to Madrid and highways. It also has train transportation and a good accessibility to

We can say that Tres Cantos is has become a good example of New Town as Howard definition because it is a self-sufficient city with a sustainable environment, industry,

We often have seen New Towns as solution for the problems of housing cost, social integration or urban growth. Most of these New towns are planned in order to clear big cities and for this reason, most of them are close to them. The successful ones are those that do not end as suburbs of the big city. As we could see in our examples none of them end as a suburb, they have become independent cities where between 30 and 40 per cent of

Like all New Towns, The Woodlands and Tres Cantos began as "satellite" towns, but in time they grew and became "independent". The Woodlands is an unincorporated town that operates independently of city government. Its three Associations provide municipal-type services to residents. Tres Cantos is an independent municipality with its own local government. They are also a model for planned development and environmental protection; The Woodlands is one of the greenest communities in the country (5.000 acres of green space).

Agriculture Services Industry

0,01

Source: Self elaborated from National Institute of Statistic Fig. 5. Percentage of different sectors in GDP.

21,24

Barajas airport in Madrid.

commerce and houses.

population work in the New Town.

**4. Conclusions** 

As we have said one of the main differences between European and US model is the funding. We know that New town development is expensive, particularly the provision of their infrastructures. In Europe, central or local government provides those infrastructures and in US is the private developer who provides them. For that reason in US some of the New towns failed or remain heavily in debt and in Europe only failed the ones that administration do not have money due to economic crisis.

The Woodlands case study can help us understand how a private government can provide public goods and recognize that certain groups or individuals can be involved in the governance of a city. Such an involvement community is a unique form of governance, and The Woodlands is the only community in United States governed by private associations. In particular, the processes of partnership creation and empowerment have reinforced the idea that a community can diminish the power of a developer in the development of a new town in ways that have implications for the community's future governance and growth.

The Woodlands also holds lessons for governments and private developers as they seek to create sustainable environments and community involvement governance. This style of governance, in the end, reflects the characters and personalities of the family members living in the community. Also, there is no existence of political parties that can have electoral or party motivations.

The case of The Woodlands provides a caution against the new towns where the developer dominates decision-making. By encouraging a system of involvement, the developer of The Woodlands has made it possible for residents to determine their own future. Already experienced in running most of the affairs of the project, citizens are well positioned to choose the best way to preserve and develop their community. As I have said it has been the most successful new town of its generation and it has been transformed into an incipient city with enough economic development to participate in and influence regional planning and policy. It remains to be seen whether New Towns are a good planning or policy instrument for the future.

Tres Cantos has followed English and French planning model. In that case the developer was a public firm called "Tres Cantos S.A" and the funding it was also from public administrations. It is a good example for housing cooperatives because in the first period of building the city houses were built by a cooperative. This way of constructions through cooperatives appears during periods of economic crisis. In the first period of developing Tres Cantos it was an economic crisis in Spain.

Tres Cantos is located in a sustainable environment with a good transportation network and it is so close to a big city as Madrid. In addition, it has a young demographic structure. This makes that its economic activity is characterize by a high participation of woman in the labour market. It has also high-qualified worker and government employees. Its unemployment rate is low due to its high occupation rate and because it has many young people studying.

As the in case of The Woodlands, Tres Cantos neighbour's associations have a lot of influence in the development and segregation of the New town from the city close to it. Nevertheless, in Tres Cantos, the government of the town is elected in public elections and it has the same composition as the rest of municipalities in Spain. However, in The Woodlands they have a private government composed by a board of directors.

Two Ways of New Towns Development: A Tale of Two Cities 239

AB: Village of Alden Bridge; CC: Village of Cochran's Crossing; CP: Village of College Park; CSP: Village of Creekside Park; GM: Village of Grogan's Mill; IS: Village of Indian Springs; PC: Village of

Panther Creek; SR: Village of Sterling Ridge; TC: Town Center; RF: Reasearch Forest

Map 2. The Woodlands' villages

#### **5. Annexes**

Map 1. The Woodlands' location

**5. Annexes** 

Map 1. The Woodlands' location

AB: Village of Alden Bridge; CC: Village of Cochran's Crossing; CP: Village of College Park; CSP: Village of Creekside Park; GM: Village of Grogan's Mill; IS: Village of Indian Springs; PC: Village of Panther Creek; SR: Village of Sterling Ridge; TC: Town Center; RF: Reasearch Forest

Map 2. The Woodlands' villages

Two Ways of New Towns Development: A Tale of Two Cities 241

I will like to thank to Mr. Joel Deretchin, vice president of public affairs of The Woodlands Development Company (TWDC), for his useful information, his patient and his kindness.

Alonso, William. 1969. "What are New Towns for?" Research Conference of the Committee

Arnstein, Sherry. 1971, "Eight rungs on the ladder of citizen participation". In Effecting community change, ed. Edgar S. Cahn and Barry A. Passet. New York: Praeger. Biles, Roger. 1998. "New towns for the great society: a case study in politics and planning"

Box, Richard. 1998. Citizen governance: leading American Communities into the 21st

Boyne, George. 1992. "Local Government Structure and Performance: Lessons from

Burke, Edmund. 1968. "Citizen participation strategies". The Journal of the American

Calvert, Randall, Mark Moran and Barry Weingast. 1987. "Congressional influence over

D. McCubbins and Terry Sullivan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

policymaking: The case of the FTC." In Congress: Structure and Policy, ed. Mathew

on Urban Economics, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

America?". Public Administration, 70: 333-357.

Planning perspectives, 13: 113-132.

Institute of Planners 3J (September).

Ames, Steven C. 1998. A guide to community visioning. Oregon Visions Project.

Map 4. Tres Cantos

**7. References** 

**6. Acknowledgment** 

Map 3. Tres Cantos' location

Map 4. Tres Cantos

Map 3. Tres Cantos' location
