The City of Katy has closed 1^st Street from Bartlett Road to Victoria Lakes Drive for street reconstruction.

Work includes reconstruction of the street pavement, bridge, driveways, sidewalks and storm sewers.

Work began Jan. 30. The city said the street working hours are 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, with the closure expected to run through April.

For more information, contact the Aranda Brothers Construction project manager a 281-506-8680.

Council, planning and zoning commission receive strategic plan update

At a Jan. 24 workshop at City Hall, Gary Mitchell, Kendig Keast Collaborative president and project manager, gave an update on efforts to update the city’s strategic plan and the priorities it spells out for the city. The top five of those priorities are:

• Ongoing attention to Katy’s infrastructure and public safety services.
• Proactively preparing for ongoing growth.
• Enhancing mobility at access.
• Achieving an even more livable Katy.
• Advancing plan priorities through new and improved implementation tools.

To address these areas, the plan focuses on growth capacity, land use and development, transportation, economic development and recreation and amenities.

The plan calls for 19 actions for the city to take. Two of them—completing a review of the city’s zoning and land development regulations and providing input for the Texas Department of Transportation for the Brookshire-Katy Mobility Study—are to be completed in two years.

The plan calls for nine actions to be completed within five years and three within 10 years. The remaining five actions, which are ongoing, include:

• Continually evaluating new technologies and options for improving public service delivery.
• Completing advanced municipal service planning for the future growth of the city’s incorporated areas.
• Securing Katy’s long-term water supply.
• Continuing efforts to use the Historic Downtown Square more regularly.
• Continuing to implement the city’s 2022 parks, trails and recreation master plan.

The plan comes as city officials look at a growing community. According to the July 2021 Census Bureau estimate, Katy has a population of about 24,000 people, Mitchell said.

Efforts to update the strategic plan have been underway for about a year. Officials and Kendig Keast Collaborative representatives have held listening workshops with former Katy mayors and other community leaders. They have also held meetings with a comprehensive plan advisory committee, most recently in December. Two public hearings on the final proposed plan are expected to be set. One will be later this month, and the other in March.

The city has been working with Kendig Keast, an urban planning consultancy, on the plan revision. Kendig Keast is based in Sugar Land, according to its website.

To see the working draft of the plan, visit the website, the abbreviated URL for which is bit.ly/3YdWZ0H.

To see the previous strategic plan, issued in 2001, visit the website, the abbreviated URL for which is bit.ly/40hSLXK.

Election candidate filing period underway

The candidate filing period for the city’s May 6 election is underway.

Three seats are up for election, and the incumbents—Council Member-at-Large Chris Harris, Ward A Council Member Janet Corte and Ward B Council Member Rory Robertson—have filed for re-election. Nobody else has filed as of Jan. 30, according to the city’s secretary’s office.

Filing deadline is Feb. 17.