A proposed Islamic-focused development in North Texas may be eyeing approval under a new name after developers scrubbed their original website and revised marketing materials amid a storm of state investigations and legislative crackdowns.

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The controversial 400-acre project, originally branded as EPIC City — an initiative from the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) — was initially planned for unincorporated areas of Collin and Hunt counties, just north of Josephine, located about 40 miles northeast of Dallas. With a stated vision of 1,000 homes, a mosque and community center, a school, and other facilities tailored to Muslim families, the project stalled earlier this year following a series of legal challenges.

On Nov. 8, Collin County Judge Chris Hill updated residents on Facebook, signaling that developers at Community Capital Partners, LLC (CCP) are gearing up for formal submissions, starting with a name change for the project. “According to a diagram of the planned neighborhood, the developers have changed the name of the project to The Meadow,” Hill wrote.

He added that there are “reports that CCP have filed or soon intend to file an application” with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to form its own municipal utility district for The Meadow.

The name change coincides with a digital overhaul: CCP’s original EPIC City website, once touting a “vibrant and inclusive community that serves the evolving needs of the Muslim community” and a “safe and purpose-built environment that fosters growth, connection, and prosperity for all who call EPIC City home,” now displays only a message reading, “New website coming soon!” alongside an email address.

An archived snapshot from May 2024 captures the site’s original pitch for EPIC City, showing images of a large mosque at the center of the proposed development, which has since been removed. Yasir Qadhi, a controversial Islamic scholar who was prominently featured in images and videos promoting the EPIC project, is also no longer on the website.

The project’s rocky path began in earnest at a packed Collin County commissioners court meeting on March 31, where officials first aired plans for the EPIC expansion. Judge Hill declared then that he would not support a project that “violates Texas or federal law.” County Administrator Yoon Kim countered that if a developer’s plan “meets state and local laws, the county has a ministerial duty to approve it.”

By May, the controversy had escalated to the state’s highest levels. Gov. Greg Abbott posted on X that “no construction” was underway on the still-vacant farmland and claimed Texas had “halted any construction of EPIC City.” Developers pushed back on the governor’s claims, saying the project was merely in preliminary planning.

In June, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded a civil rights probe — in response to calls from Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn — after CCP “affirmed that all will be welcome in any future development” and pledged to tweak marketing to “reinforce that message” under the Fair Housing Act.

With an estimated Muslim population of over 313,000, Texas has one of the largest Muslim communities in the U.S., with nearly 150,000 Muslim residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Located in the Dallas suburb of Plano, EPIC opened in July 2015 as a nonprofit “formed exclusively for educational, religious, and social purposes” and bills itself as “a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual, non-sectarian, diverse, and open community committed to full and equal participation and involvement of men and women who are community members of EPIC and subscribe to accept its rules, regulations, and procedures.”

How are you praying about EPIC City, now The Meadow? Share your prayers and scriptures below?

This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Anisa Bhatti – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41621711.