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is a 14,000 acre (57 km²) master-planned community located in northeast Houston, Texas, United States. The majority of the community is located in Harris County with a small portion in Montgomery County. Known as the "Livable Forest," it is the largest master-planned community in Harris County and second-largest within the 10-county metropolitan area.
Kingwood, founded in 1969, is being developed on Lake Houston by the Friendswood Development Company, headed by John Bruton Jr. The name is derived from the King Ranch, who, at one point owned the land, as well as from the Friendswood Development Company.
In 1976 Kingwood had a few thousand residents. Between 1980 and 1990 the community's population increased by an amount between 40 percent and 70 percent. In 1990 the community had 19,443 residents and 204 businesses. The population increased to 37,397 in 1992.
Houston annexed Kingwood in 1996. During that year, Thomas Phillips, a retired longshoreman and Bordersville resident, joined with representatives of Kingwood and sued the City of Houston in a federal court, arguing that the city could not legally annex areas if it did not provide certain services to some of its existing areas, including Bordersville. Imad F. Abdullah, the President of Landmark Architects Inc., criticized the residents who fought annexation in his 1996 editorial in the