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6,500 acres kept from developers

Katy Conservancy buys stake in ranch

By NANCY SARNOFF, Houston Chronicle Archives from June 2004

A local conservation group has quietly bought one of the largest remaining parcels of land west of Houston, preventing future development on thousands of acres in the Katy Prairie.

The Katy Prairie Conservancy purchased a majority interest in the 6,500-acre Warren Ranch, a working cattle ranch that dates to the 1850s.

The move ensures the property will remain untouched by real estate developers who have been eager to swallow any vacant land along the city's exploding Westside Interstate 10 corridor.

With the acquisition, the conservation group now controls about 12,000 acres of land in the area.

"Our overall goal is to protect 50,000 acres," said Mary Anne Piacentini, executive director of the conservancy.

The property bought by the conservancy, a Houston-based organization dedicated to preserving the Katy Prairie's ecosystem, is located south of U.S. 290 and west of the proposed Grand Parkway.

The Warren Ranch is one of the few agricultural properties in the area that are still operating.

While smaller farms and ranches still exist, many of the larger ones have been bought by real estate developers for housing projects and other commercial uses.

"This used to be a big agricultural producing area, but it's going by the wayside," said ranch manager Jim Warren.

Last year, a master-planned community developer purchased the Josey and Longenbaugh ranches, located just east of the Warren Ranch.

The Maryland-based Rouse Co. bought 9,000 acres there and announced a major residential community called Bridgelands. When completed, it is expected to have 17,000 single-family homes, shopping centers and scores of apartments.

Warren has been fending off developers for years.

"It seems like there's always somebody that wants to buy the place," he said.

But Warren has always resisted the temptation to sell. The property has been in his family for more than a century.

Warren's great-grandfather settled in Hockley in the 1850s. He operated a boarding house and restaurant, where he served meals of game he hunted on the land.

He accumulated thousands of acres which eventually became the Warren Ranch.

The sale of the Warren Ranch was negotiated by Stan Creech of Stan Creech Properties and Roger Galatas of Roger Galatas Interests.

The Katy Prairie covers a broad sweep of land that stretches just beyond Houston's city limits, west toward Brookshire and northwest toward Hempstead.

The property ranges from flat coastal plains that girdle Interstate 10, to rolling pastures on the northern reaches of the prairie.

The terrain is typical of what is found along much of the upper Texas Gulf Coast, according to the conservancy.

The organization, founded in 1992, is funded by foundations, individuals, corporations, property leases and wildlife and wetland agencies.

Much of the land the group has been able to acquire is now used for ranching, bird watching and hunting.

But acquiring land in the Katy Prairie is not always easy for the conservancy.

The organization works as a land trust, which operates independently of the government to buy and protect land facing development pressure.

A large part of Houston's new housing inventory has been built just west of Houston. That means groups like the Katy Prairie Conservancy are always in competition with deep-pocketed developers.

"It's all so dependent on willing land owners and what we can afford," Piacentini said. "There needs to be a balance with open space and preservation for recreation and flood control, in addition to development."

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  • The title was changed to Igloo Katy Campus
  • The title was changed to Igloo Factory Store At 777 Igloo Rd.

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