2023. When complete in June 2024, it will be a four-lane undivided road. “It’s gonna look exactly like every- thing east of Katy Hockley [Road], just pushed on down to Pitts [Road],” Kasper said. The project, however, drewconcerns from city o cials at the meeting. “Residents are adamant that they don’t want it,” Council Member Rory Robertson said. “They don’t want the expansion. ... It’s undivided, which is a good thing. There’s no way it could be divided.” He also voiced concerns about the project’s construction as development has negatively impacted the area’s drainage in the past. “[Drainage] is a big component,” he said. “They’ve been hit. So I want to make sure the drainage is [good].” Councilmember Gina Hicks said she shared the same concerns. Kasper said the plan for Morton Road will divert water to Leyendecker Landing, a nearby park that will serve as a critical detention pond during ood events. The most expensive of the nine proj- ects, the $7.72 million Katy Hockley widening project, will break ground in 2024. The road will expand to four lanes between Morton Road and Clay Road. It will begin in 2024 after the
According to Hebert, the yearly pay- ments from METRO vary because the funding is dependent on sales tax col- lections fromKaty. According to city o cials, METRO remitted $6.37 million to the city of Katy in 2020. In 2021, payments totaled $6.62 million through October. Hebert said the payments lag a few months to provide METRO time to process them accurately. The multiyear $23.05 million— the portion of the $33 million pack- age that did not come from cash funds—is an accu- mulation of METRO funds over several years, o cials said. “This does not cost the taxpayers anything,” Hebert said. “This is all done through sales tax.” Meanwhile, the KDA was originally created by the city to establish the use of METRO funds and to promote eco- nomic development via public-private GMP agreement between METRO and the city of Katy began in 2014 and extends to 2040. The
Pitts intersection realignment is com- plete to avoid too much congestion, o cials said. Fundingmobility needs All nine projects will be funded by METRO’s GMP through the KDA. According to METRO o cials, METRO collects a portion of sales tax revenue from the city of Houston, Har-
partnerships, city o cials said. “Instead of us doing buses [through METRO funds], we do transportation projects,” Katy City Attorney Art Pertile said at the Jan. 10 meeting. “KDA was created [to] use those funds [for] these types of projects.” When the city is determining which projects to pursue, o cials factor in tra c ow and anticipated population growth. The city engineer proposed a project plan that was approved by City Council and theKDAboardof directors. One of KDA’s public-private partner- ships is the agreement with the Katy Boardwalk District’s developer, Hous- ton-based Sueba USA Corp. According to KDA o cials, it is not unusual to have so many projects at one time, but they do not always have a comprehensive plan like this in place. “Typically, [the KDA] has several road projects ongoing at any given time,” Hebert said. “However, in this instance, [we] determined there was added value in having a detailed com- prehensive plan—and associated fund- ing in place—to improve and expand the roadways within the city.”
ris County and 14 other Hous- ton-area cities— including Katy. Then, some of the taxes can be rebated back to the entities as part of the GMP. That rebate program funds
“THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO DO A LOT OF MOBILITY PROJECTS.” BYRON HEBERT, KATY CITY ADMINISTRATOR
mobility projects, like bridges, side- walks, bike trails, drainage, roads and tra c signals, METRO o cials said. “The city has assigned the agree- ment to the KDA to administer the proj- ects,” Hebert said. Then, the KDA either utilizes the funds to “cash-fund” transportation projects—or it can sell bonds to fund a broader scope of projects, Hebert said.
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