{"id":271883,"date":"2026-04-29T21:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/271883\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:15:10","slug":"texas-judge-sides-with-epic-city-developers-over-state-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/271883\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas judge sides with &#8216;EPIC City&#8217; developers over state agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"Imran Chaudhary, executive officer and director of Community Capital Partners, poses for a photo at the EPIC City project site outside of Josephine, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Imran Chaudhary, executive officer and director of Community Capital Partners, poses for a photo at the EPIC City project site outside of Josephine, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Chitose Suzuki\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<p>A Travis County judge has ordered a state agency to comply with the fair housing agreement it made with the developer of a Muslim-centric neighborhood in North Texas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&amp;template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\" alt=\"\" class=\"x1px y1px vh abs\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Texas Workforce Commission must abide by the terms of a September 2025 settlement it reached with developer Community Capital Partners. The group is behind The Meadow,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/faith\/2025\/02\/24\/they-dream-of-building-muslim-centric-neighborhoods-near-dallas-will-it-work\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">previously called EPIC City<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>The 201st District Court issued the injunction Thursday, and developers say it clears a path forward for the project. Community Capital Partners said in a statement that the firm will put the agreed-upon fair housing policies in effect and resume public communications about the planned development.<\/p>\n<p>Social media accounts and websites were paused while the state completed a required review of the developers.<\/p>\n<p>Attempts to contact the Texas Workforce Commission were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n<p>Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=dallasnews.com\" data-link=\"native\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Add Preferred Source\" class=\"td300 cp f aic jcc disabled:cd wsn px24 y40px px16 py8 buttonSm fs13 xs:fs16 xs:buttonLg bg-primaryAccessible hover:o80 c-white disabled:bg-gray300 disabled:c-gray600 border bn tac br2\"><\/p>\n<p>Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis ruling confirms what we have maintained from the beginning \u2014 that Community Capital Partners has been willing, ready, and committed to following Texas law at every step,\u201d \u00a0Imran Chaudhary, the company\u2019s president, said in a statement. \u201cWe have done nothing wrong, and this decision reflects that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>The Meadow is a master-planned development across 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties.<\/p>\n<p>The development is expected to feature more than 1,000 homes, a K-12 faith-based school, a mosque, elderly and assisted living, apartments, clinics, retail shops, a community college and sports fields just outside the town of Josephine, about 40 minutes northeast of downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/business\/real-estate\/2025\/09\/18\/texas-agency-reaches-deal-to-end-fair-housing-probe-against-epic-city-developer\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook_The_Dallas_Morning_News\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Under the 2025 settlement<\/a>, Community Capital Partners agreed to work with the Texas Workforce Commission to develop fair housing procedures. The Texas Workforce Commission is the entity responsible for enforcing the Fair Housing Act in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Community Capital Partners filed a lawsuit against the Texas Workforce Commission earlier this year after the state agency failed \u201cto acknowledge, evaluate, or advance the fair housing policies\u201d submitted by the developer. The agreement required that the Texas Workforce Commission approve the new policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A screenshot of renderings for EPIC City, a planned Muslim-centric development near Josephine.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:16 \/ 9\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A screenshot of renderings for EPIC City, a planned Muslim-centric development near Josephine.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Community Capital Partners<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Greg Abbott announced last March that the Texas Workforce Commission was investigating the East Plano Islamic Center and any affiliated entities for potential fair housing violations. The East Plano Islamic Center is one of North Texas\u2019 largest mosques. Members of the mosque formed Community Capital Partners.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders for Community Capital Partners said the state agency\u2019s inaction was \u201cpart of a broader pattern\u201d that shows Muslim-led projects are treated differently than similar developments in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor months, state actors attempted to create the impression that this project was operating outside the law, when in reality we were doing exactly what was asked of us,\u201d Eric Hudson, a civil rights attorney representing the developers, said in a statement. \u201cA court made clear that the law applies to state agencies too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>The legal victory comes after the project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/business\/real-estate\/2026\/03\/31\/epic-city-injunction\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">hit several roadblocks<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n<p>A North Texas judge issued an injunction against the Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A of Hunt and Collin counties. The utility district was expected to provide needed sewer services to the planned residential development.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775016909_917_rawImage.jpg\" alt=\"image\" title=\"#\" class=\"x100\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall c-gray600\">By signing up, you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/terms\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"underlinedButton fw500 tuo1px tdu tuo2px tdc-secondary tdt-px hover:o70 td300\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/privacy\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"underlinedButton fw500 tuo1px tdu tuo2px tdc-secondary tdt-px hover:o70 td300\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling temporarily prevents the district from supporting the project. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to halt those efforts. A trial is set for November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Hunt County officials also rejected the preliminary plat application for the project last month.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton has filed two lawsuits related to the project, and Gov. Greg Abbott has directed multiple state agencies to investigate EPIC and its affiliated entities. Abbott said in a December social media post that four agencies continue to investigate the planned development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imran Chaudhary, executive officer and director of Community Capital Partners, poses for a photo at the EPIC City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-271883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271883","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=271883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}