A planned 402-acre community near Dallas tied to the East Plano Islamic Center is back in legal limbo after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed a Travis County judge’s order that would have forced the Texas Workforce Commission to act on the developer’s fair housing documents. The appeal to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals paused the temporary injunction, blocking what had been an early courtroom win for Community Capital Partners, the developer behind The Meadow, formerly known as EPIC City.
The Meadow is planned for unincorporated land in Collin and Hunt counties near Josephine, about 40 miles northeast of Dallas, with more than 1,000 single- and multifamily homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, senior housing, commercial space, sports facilities and a community college. To Texas officials, the project raises fair housing red flags. To the developers, the state’s campaign looks like a coordinated effort to punish a Muslim-associated project before it is built.
The legal hook is the Fair Housing Act and its Texas counterpart, which bar discrimination in selling, renting or advertising housing based on religion, national origin and other protected traits. State officials have argued that early marketing suggested a Muslim-only community. The developers have denied that, saying the project will be open and compliant with state and federal law…