A state agency cleared the way for Muslim-focused master-planned community EPIC City to proceed, ending one chapter in the high-profile political push to stop the project.
The Texas Workforce Commission settled a Fair Housing Act complaint against Community Capital Partners, the developer of EPIC City, The Dallas Morning News reported. The agency dismissed the complaint this week after the firm agreed to new housing policies, staff training and five years of compliance reporting. The developer admitted no wrongdoing.
As part of the deal, Community Capital Partners must udpate its sales and marketing materials, adopt nondiscriminatory housing standards and avoid using any applicant criteria not tied directly to business necessity. The firm is also required to implement written fair housing procedures subject to state approval.
Despite the regulatory scrutiny, Community Capital Partners said it is forging ahead with the $400 million, 402-acre project near Josephine in Collin and Hunt counties. Plans call for more than 1,000 homes alongside a mosque, K-12 Islamic school, apartments, senior housing, retail, healthcare clinics, sports facilities and a community college.
“We welcomed the opportunity to take a deep dive into the Fair Housing Act,” Imran Chaudhary, the developer’s president, said in a statement, framing the settlement as a chance to strengthen the project.
The resolution comes after political attacks on EPIC City reached a fever pitch this spring, during the Texas legislative session. Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly accused the group of trying to create “Sharia compounds” and said as many as a dozen agencies are investigating.
But, so far, the attacks have fallen flat. The U.S. Department of Justice closed its own civil rights investigation into the project in June.
Abbott, however, signaled the state isn’t finished, keeping EPIC City at the center of a culture-war flashpoint that has now bled into real estate development.
He signed a new law over the summer — House Bill 4211 — aimed at blocking the business structure behind EPIC City, a move the developers and their attorney blasted as fearmongering.
“It’s nauseating to my very core that an elected official … is lying to Texans,” attorney Dan Cogdell told the outlet.
The law requires new disclosure and ownership rules for business entities selling interest in shared real estate ventures. The law was authored by Rep. Candy Noble, a Republican from the Collin County town of Lucas.— Eric Weilbacher
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