{"id":213501,"date":"2026-03-20T22:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213501\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T22:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:03:20","slug":"epic-city-plano-hearing-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213501\/","title":{"rendered":"EPIC City Plano Hearing Cancelled"},"content":{"rendered":"

A public hearing was scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. in Plano, drawing community members eager to express their opinions on the newly proposed EPIC City expansions. The Dallas Express was in attendance; however, the event did not go as planned.<\/p>\n

The hearing was scheduled to take place at 4740 14th Street in Plano, at the EPIC Office Suites near the large mosque. It was attended by residents who wanted to formally speak about their concerns regarding the growth of the mosque and the network of associated buildings in the area.<\/p>\n

Officers at The Plano Police Department told The Dallas Express that the public hearing was cancelled after the property owner withdrew permission for community members to speak on-site, leaving attendees confused and frustrated. <\/p>\n

Despite the cancellation, two community members who had prepared speeches shared their ideas about EPIC\u2019s leaders\u2019 lack of transparency and raised questions about their expansion efforts.<\/p>\n

Kelly Smith, who identified herself as a Christian Texan, was vocal about her concerns regarding infrastructure and resource sustainability in the area, not to mention the cultural impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the plan for the city anyway? Are all the Muslims in Plano going to move out and go live there? Or is it going to result in even more people coming here?\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Smith speaking<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas has a water crisis. Doc Chambers even mentioned it when he was campaigning for governor, and nobody\u2019s talking about it. Most people don\u2019t even know. And yet, we keep building and building. No concern. Just because somebody has a lot of money and an idea of wanting to build a city doesn\u2019t mean they should be able to do so, assimilate or leave,\u201d Smith continued.<\/p>\n

Ashley Louden offered her remarks, focusing on legal and governance questions surrounding EPIC\u2019s seemingly mysterious oversight board.<\/p>\n

\u201cDays before a court hearing, you\u2019re holding an emergency meeting to restructure leadership, which has now been canceled; that does not build trust. It looks like damage control,\u201d Louden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t stop there. There are also serious concerns about whether this board has been operating behind the scenes. From the outside looking in, it appears that discussions and decisions may have taken place outside of properly noticed public meetings, and that raises a major issue. This is a governmental body; you do not get to operate a private under Texas law. Your meetings are required to be open, properly posted, and accessible to the public. The people in this county are paying attention, because if the foundation wasn\u2019t done right, then everything built on top of it is now in question,\u201d Louden added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real concern in our community about ensuring that everything associated with this development operates fully within Texas and U.S. law \u2013 no parallel systems, no exceptions, and no ambiguity,\u201d Louden said.<\/p>\n

The last-minute cancellation of Friday\u2019s hearing \u2013 initiated not by organizers but by the property owner himself \u2013 added another layer of uncertainty to proceedings that community members say already lack clarity.<\/p>\n

Officer J. Hernandez confirmed to The Dallas Express that police were made aware of the hearing\u2019s cancellation, though no further details about the property owner\u2019s decision were immediately available.<\/p>\n

Paxton Secures Restraining Order to Halt EPIC City-Backed District Maneuvers<\/p>\n

Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a temporary restraining order on Thursday blocking Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A from advancing plans tied to the controversial EPIC City development, as previously reported<\/a> by The Dallas Express.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s lawsuit alleges that the district was hijacked to skirt state requirements for forming a new municipal utility district, allowing developers to levy taxes and push forward without proper oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis TRO is a win for the rule of law,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cAllowing Double R MUD to meet in this way would have only furthered its illegal scheme to support EPIC City.\u201d <\/p>\n

The freeze remains in place until a temporary injunction hearing later this month. The full temporary restraining order is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Express will continue to follow developments related to the EPIC City project as they unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A public hearing was scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. in Plano, drawing community members eager to express…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[83589,83591,83593,83592,160,83590,162,161],"class_list":["post-213501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-epic-city-hearing-cancelled","tag-epic-city-plano-cancelled","tag-epic-city-transparency-concerns","tag-paxton-epic-city-tro","tag-plano","tag-plano-epic-city-public-hearing","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}