Allen renews library sharing with Plano, backs Molsen Farm plan

Allen residents with Plano library cards, and Plano residents with Allen cards, will keep their cross-city borrowing access for at least another year after the Allen City Council renewed the two cities’ library-sharing agreement. The move protects a long-running service that already reaches thousands of cardholders, including 6,189 Allen residents with Plano library cards and 2,020 Plano residents with Allen library cards as of April 2026.

Council members approved the one-year interlocal agreement on June 9, with the option to renew for five additional one-year terms. The arrangement restores a formal partnership that Allen and Plano maintained from 1992 to 2010 and continued informally after that. For families, students and frequent library users, the deal keeps open access to materials across both systems at a time when Allen Public Library has already been expanded and retooled for heavier use.

That library reopened Dec. 8, 2025, after a $19.9 million renovation and expansion that added 18,000 square feet. The project followed the library’s closure on Aug. 1, 2024, and a temporary move to the former Rountree Elementary campus from September 2024 to September 2025. The updated building now includes six study rooms, rentable meeting rooms, dedicated teen spaces, a preschool playroom, laptops for in-library use, four self-checkout stations and a seed library.

The council also approved applying for Collin County Parks and Open Space Funding Assistance for the Molsen Farm project. City plans describe the property as a 15.07-acre land purchase intended for the Molsen Farm Master Plan, with early concepts including a trailhead and a design phase that could bring a greenhouse, tree farm, community gardens and related infrastructure if the grant is awarded. Public outreach on the site has included meetings where staff and planners took questions from residents.

In a separate leadership move, Mayor Chris Schulmeister recommended Carl Clemencich as mayor pro tem, and the motion passed after executive session discussion. Clemencich, the Place 5 councilmember, is listed for a 2024-2027 term. Allen operates under a council-manager form of government approved by voters in 1979, with a seven-member council made up of the mayor and six councilmembers elected citywide.