Great news, homebuyers. West Houston is climbing ranks as a brand new water park is coming to Katy! The park is expected to stimulate the local economy and draw more people to the area. Residents in Lakes of Bella Terra will be only 18 minutes way from the theme park located next to the Katy Mills Mall. 

Houston Chronicle Reported:

A groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 18 held on a 25-acre plot next to Katy Mills Mall revealed the suburb is getting ready to build Texas' next large water park, "Typhoon Texas," which project leaders have promised will compete with the Schlitterbahn chain or Wet 'n' Wild Splash Town in Spring.

The $45 million park, targeted for opening in May 2016, has been the subject of three years of discrete planning.

"This is fantastic for the city of Katy and the greater Houston area," Katy Mayor Fabol Hughes said at the event last week. "The park is going to bring in people from Houston and places like Austin and Galveston and from miles around. This is a huge deal for our area."

The park will use a filter that will pump 70,000 gallons of water per minute and powerful slide pumps that will make for shorter lines at rides, said Keith Dalton, a business partner on the project with Ray Delaughter and Terry Hlavinka.

"Our park will offer the cleanest environment possible … we are going to have the cleanest water in Texas," Dalton said.

The park's 13 main rides will include body slides such as the 50-foot "Open AquaDrop." Tube slides such as the "Constrictor" will spin pairs of riders through series of loops, while raft slides such as the "Family 6 Boomerango" will send groups gliding up and down a 60-foot wall bearing a painting of the Texas flag.

The three main attractions will be a 25,000-square-foot wave pool - which Hlavinka said will be larger than the one at New Braunfel's Schlitterbahn - a 1,345-foot "lazy river" ride and a 48-foot-tall children's play structure.

The project's partners had initially approached Hughes with their idea, and the mayor embraced their vision, believing the park would bring publicity and sales-tax revenue to Katy.

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