In a meeting that lasted just more than two-and-a-half hours on June 28, councilmembers heard the results of the city’s annual financial audit, approved the sale of $2.5 million in bonds and a roughly $214,000 amendment to drainage work being done in the Riceland Terrace subdivision. They also passed a new ordinance creating the Katy Court planned development district in the southwest corner of Clay and Katy Hockley Cut Off roads.

“The commercial component is primarily along Clay (Road) and at the corner of Katy Hockley Cut Off (Road),” said Kathryn Parker of META Planning, a consultant working with Parkside Capital, the developer of the Katy Court project.

The PDD is about 111 acres and will feature about 46 residential lots that are 55-feet wide, 46 residential lots that are 65 feet wide, and another 96 residential lots that are 70 feet wide. The residential builder for the site will be Pulte Homes, which Parkside Capital Executive Vice President Brett Walker said his firm has done business with in the past and trusts to provide high-quality homes to the community.

“Having a quality of residential builder like Pulte who can build something that’s a plus and looks nice that has happy residents, it’s good for all of us,” Walker said. “It’s good for people that that will be proud to live in those homes in the city of Katy and will have good, viable retail and … commercial uses around them.”

Retail and office developers have not been identified yet, but Walker said Parkside Capital has worked with reputable partners such as HEB in the past and will work with similar groups to ensure similar results for the Katy Court commercial area.

Walker also said Parkside Capital had been working on the project for about 14 months and had paid special attention to drainage because they knew that would be a concern for nearby residents.

Multiple representatives of the project discussed the planning of the new PDD which features oversized detention ponds that exceed the drainage requirements by 70% according to data provided by the development team and confirmed by Steve Wilcox of Costello, Inc., the city’s drainage consultant. The drainage plan provides enough drainage capacity for almost 162 acres, drainage engineers said. Each residential lot will drain into the roadway and subsequently into the development’s drainage and finally taken under Katy Hockley Cutoff Road into Harris County drainage to the southeast of the development, they said.

Wilcox said that in his opinion as a drainage expert who is paid by the city and has no conflict of interest in the situation that he believes the development will improve drainage in the area, including for residents of Heritage Park West to the south of the new development.

Multiple residents expressed concern regarding traffic in the area considering narrow nearby roads. However, City Planner Anas Garfaoui said improvements to nearby roadways were in process with Harris County and other entities, though he did not provide a detailed timeline for those improvements.

Walker also said that commercial development would not proceed until roadway improvements had been made.

Council also approved the sale of $2.5 million in bonds at 1.49% interest during the meeting. This is the first sale of $6 million approved by voters on May 1 for public building and parks improvements.

A change to the contract associated with drainage improvements between the Caloro Lane drainage ditch and Patna Lane and Village Circle Drive was also approved at a cost of about $215,500. According to documentation provided by the city, a section of 12-inch water line had been identified for refurbishment there but needs to be replaced instead, adding to the cost of the overall project by 5.68%. The total cost for the contract is now at about $4.02 million.

Lupe Garcia of Whitley Penn, the city’s financial auditor, said the audit of the city’s financial records for the last fiscal year which ended September of 2020 had passed fully and that the city’s finances were above average.

Correction: Katy Court will be situated in the southwestern corner of Katy Hockley Cutoff Road and Clay Road. This information has been appended in the article above.