Allen, Texas
Successfully leading a rapidly growing city requires vision, patience, and expertise. It takes the steady leadership of a professional manager to ensure that citizens, elected leaders, and city staff navigate the challenges and opportunities of boom times.
Since Peter Vargas became city manager of Allen, TX, (pop. 94,179) in 1999, the city has been transformed from a semi-rural suburb into a gem of the Dallas Metroplex and one of Money Magazine’s “20 Best Places to live in America.” Population has increased 95 percent and the city’s budget has more than tripled since the 1990s.
Vargas has forged effective working relationships with elected leaders and community members resulting in a clear vision and direction for the city. His uncanny sense of timing and meticulous preparation has enabled him to seize those opportunities that best meet the city council’s vision. Some of his more significant accomplishments in Allen include:
- implementing a strategic planning process to help the city council determine the city’s goals and objectives, which drive the city’s budgetary process and spending priorities.
- creating and implementing improved development standards to ensure quality development that reflects the desires and vision of the city council.
- creating effective public-private partnerships to obtain $32 million for a public infrastructure project, Watters Creek, a resort-style mixed-use development. He also established other public-private partnerships to obtain $43 million for another project, the Village at Allen and Allen Event Center, making Allen one of Texas’s premier leisure and business destinations.
Carrying out the vision of the city council, Vargas has helped Allen grow in a responsible way and weather the effects of the recent economic downturn. Tax rates have dropped each year of his tenure without cutting back on city services and the city’s bond rating has improved from a BBB+ to an AA+.
Meet the Manager
