Clear Lake (region)

Clear Lake Area
region
Kemah boardwalk and marina
Location of the Clear Lake area
Country	United States
State	Texas
Metro Area	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown
Named for	Clear Lake (Galveston Bay)
Population
• Estimate (2000)	141,980
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	77058, 77059, 77062, 77258, 77505, 77507, 77565, 77573, 77586, 77598
Area code(s)	281
Website	clearlakearea.com

Clear Lake, or the Clear Lake Area, is a region in parts of Harris and Galveston County in Texas, United States. It is part of the Galveston Bay Area, which itself is a section of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. The area is geographically characterized by the bodies of water in it and around it, including Clear Lake, Taylor Lake, Clear Creek, and Galveston Bay.

Clear Lake is relatively affluent with a thriving business community. The area's most important business sectors are aerospace and tourism. It is home to the Johnson Space Center and numerous aerospace contracting firms. The lake itself is home to one of the largest concentrations of recreational boats and marinas in the nation.

The Clear Lake region is named, as it implies, for Clear Lake, a brackish lake, fed by Clear Creek, that empties into Galveston Bay.

The name "Clear Lake" is often used in a variety of ways depending on the source. Apart from referring to the lake itself or the region defined by the chamber of commerce, the name can refer to the Clear Lake City residential development, the Clear Lake area of Houston (a Houston "superneighborhood" including Clear Lake City, Johnson Space Center, and surrounding areas), the Clear Lake area of Pasadena, and other geographies as well.

As of 2010^[update] the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, established in 1962, provides the following definition for the area.

The Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce recognizes the defined "Clear Lake Area" as its service territory. This composite community includes Clear Lake City, Clear Lake Shores, El Lago, Kemah, League City, Nassau Bay, Seabrook, Taylor Lake Village, Webster, and parts of Houston and Pasadena.