A Texas judge has issued a temporary block preventing a utility district meeting from furthering development of a proposed Muslim enclave, known as EPIC City or The Meadow.
Collin County District Judge Andrea Thompson granted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid for a temporary restraining order against Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A of Hunt and Collin counties on March 19.
Thompson stated in her ruling that there was evidence the defendants violated Texas laws governing the administration and operation of municipal utility districts.
“The Court finds that unless restrained, Double R [Municipal Utility District] will continue operations under the direction of the Individual Defendants who have not been qualified to serve [in the district],” the judge wrote.
She said the defendants did not own taxable property as required within the geographic boundaries as they existed before the purported annexation of lands on Sept. 12, 2025.
The restraining order prevented the municipal utility district from taking any substantive action at a meeting scheduled for March 20. Actions barred include accepting or appointing new directors or taking up agenda items, unless they fall under extremely limited circumstances related to ongoing litigation.
“This [temporary restraining order] is a win for the rule of law,” Paxton said in a statement. “Allowing Double R [Municipal Utility District] to meet in this way would have only furthered its illegal scheme to support EPIC City.”
Municipal utility districts are political subdivisions of the state that provide utility services and infrastructure and are subject to state oversight.
The proposed city was originally named after the East Plano Islamic Center, or EPIC, which purchased the 402-acre site to build the “epicenter of Islam in America.” The development recently changed its name to The Meadow amid backlash from locals who voiced concerns over potential sharia law, discrimination against non-Muslims, or Islamic radicalization.
The development would include 1,000 homes and a mosque. It would also have a K–12 faith-based school, sports facilities, a community college, senior housing, an outreach center, and businesses.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott applauded the legal development in an X post on March 19.
“Today, a court stopped EPIC City’s latest attempt to organize a community,” Abbott said. “We will not rest in the mission to stop the spread of radical Islam.”
The temporary restraining order expires on April 1, the day after a hearing at which Paxton is seeking a temporary injunction.
2 Lawsuits
Paxton is pursuing two lawsuits to stop construction of the enclave, including one filed on Feb. 16 against the district.
The lawsuit claims that the district sidestepped state oversight to facilitate the development in rural East Texas, about 40 miles outside Dallas.
Paxton claims that Double R Municipal Utility District held a “highly unusual special meeting at noon on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, at a desolate intersection identified by GPS coordinates.”
Those coordinates marked the intersection of two rural roads bordering farmland that was to become EPIC City.
At this roadside meeting, the former board resigned, and a new slate of directors took control, according to the attorney general’s office.
The state’s lawsuit against the district seeks to remove the individual defendants from the board, reverse the annexation of the 402 acres, and hold them accountable for actions the state calls unlawful.
An attorney for the municipal utility district did not immediately respond to a request for comment surrounding the temporary restraining order.
According to Paxton’s office, the latest lawsuit is part of a broader effort to hold EPIC City and its affiliated entities accountable for alleged illegal activity.
In December, the attorney general announced its initial lawsuit against EPIC, which contracted for the land, developer Community Capital Partners, and others, alleging violations of Texas securities laws.
The lawsuit claims that the housing development would be illegally reserved for Muslim residents. It also alleges that the project’s leaders “lined their own pockets” with funds during development.
Developers Respond
EPIC and developers have denied any wrongdoing.
High-profile Texas attorney Dan Cogdell, who represents EPIC and Community Capital Partners, held a news conference in spring 2025 as the pressure campaign against the development ramped up.
“My clients are law-abiding Texans, law-abiding Americans, and law-abiding Muslims,” he said.
He said no one associated with the community follows or implements sharia and that Abbott was attempting to “demonize” Muslims.
The Islamophobia Network, a project of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, produced a report about the development, condemning Texas’s legal maneuvers as politically motivated.
“Anti-Islam organizing targeting the Muslim-led EPIC City development project saw bias mobilizing the power of Texas government to deny Muslims their equal opportunities to pursue their dreams and potential,” the report states.
Neither EPIC nor Cogdell responded to requests for comment.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in February that it had launched an investigation into entities involved in the planned Muslim development over concerns that they may have used discriminatory practices based on religion and nationality.
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