Katy, TX

Katy's Historic Town Square now interprets the city's past as part of an active civic space. A visitors center opened there in May 2025 with interactive maps and displays, plus a children's area built around the trains, rice farming, and oil and gas industries that shaped Katy. The square also hosts recurring public events. The 2026 Rice Harvest Festival is scheduled for October 10 and 11, following an October 3 parade, with music, a carnival, food trucks, vendors, and children's activities. This keeps the rice-farming identity visible in the incorporated city's event calendar rather than treating it only as a historical label. That continuity is occurring amid unusually rapid municipal growth. Katy's 2025 population estimate was 28,373, 29.7 percent above its 2020 estimates base. During 2020-2024, 80.7 percent of occupied homes were owner-occupied, the median owner-occupied value was $401,700, median gross rent was $1,602, and average household size was 3.15.

Over the same 2020-2024 period, workers' mean travel time was 31.3 minutes and 33.6 percent of people age five or older spoke a language other than English at home. Everyday public facilities include an off-leash dog park with separate small- and large-dog areas, a walking path, wading pool, dog showers, fountains, an agility course, and restrooms. Nearby, the 15,000-square-foot Katy Branch Library was provided by the city and operates with Harris County library services. It offers children's and adult areas, internet and database access, computer classes, reading programs, and book clubs; Tuesday and Thursday hours extend to 8 p.m.