Katy, TX

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Katy is an affluent city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The city is approximately centered at the tripoint of Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller counties. Katy had a population of 14,102 at the 2010 census, up from 11,775 in 2000. Its population was estimated at 21,729 in 2019. It is known for its large mansions, idyllic landscapes, and as one of the wealthiest communities in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area. First formally settled in the mid-1890s, Katy was a railroad town along the Missouri–Kansas–Texas (MKT) Railroad which ran parallel to U.S. Route 90 (today Interstate 10) into Downtown Houston. The fertile floodplain of Buffalo Bayou, which has its source near Katy, and its tributaries made Katy and other communities in the surrounding prairie an attractive location for rice farming. Beginning in the 1960s, the rapid growth of Houston moved westward along the new Interstate 10 corridor, bringing Katy into its environs. Today, the municipality of Katy lies at the center of a broader area known as Greater Katy, which has become heavily urbanized. While largely subsumed into Greater Houston, the town of Katy is still notable for Katy Mills Mall, the Katy Independent School District, and its historic town square along the former right-of-way of the MKT railroad.