Developers of a controversial master-planned Muslim community in North Texas—known as EPIC City—have hired high-profile defense attorney Dan Cogdell to represent them against multiple state investigations.
Thursday’s announcement by the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) and Community Capital Partners (CCP), the developers of EPIC City, followed a barrage of bad publicity for the project, which is still in the early planning stages.
Over the past week or so, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton announced several legal probes into the activities of EPIC and CCP.
Then on Monday, Collin County commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed EPIC City that drew an overflow crowd of residents opposed to what they believe will be an exclusively Islamic compound.
Cogdell challenged that belief.
“EPIC City is a thoughtful community designed for families, just like hundreds of others in Texas. The only reason it is being unfairly targeted, is because there is a mosque in the plans instead of a church or a temple. That’s it,” said Cogdell in a statement issued Thursday by CCP’s public relations consultant Allyn Media.
“This is fear mongering and political theater, and we intend to shut it down with the truth,” he stated.
Cogdell has defended a number of high-profile clients. Most notably, he led the defense during Paxton’s 2023 impeachment trial and again in a 2024 resolution of a securities fraud case against Paxton.
Paxton’s office represents the state in litigation, and the attorney general is popular among the conservative Texans who are opposing the Muslim development.
EPIC was established in Plano in 2003 and is among dozens of mosques and Islamic centers in Collin County and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The proposed EPIC City development would be an extension of the Plano campus, also known as EPIC Masjid, and would be located on what is currently empty farmland on the border of Collin and Hunt counties about 25 miles northeast of the current mosque.
Members of EPIC created Community Capital Partners last year to manage the new project.
“The vision for EPIC City is simple. We want to build an inclusive community, one in which people of every background, faith, and culture can live together in harmony,” said CCP President Imran Chaudhary. “We know Dan is the right person to help us navigate through these challenges and his unmatched experience will serve our community well.”
Chaudhary said the first phase of EPIC City—over 500 lots—sold out within six months of being announced last year, but CCP is continuing to accept “investors” for “the next phase of EPIC City and the first phase of EPIC Ranches.”
CCP’s sale of investment “shares” in the developments rather than actual lots is one aspect of the project that is under investigation and is also the subject of proposed legislation.
During Monday’s public hearing and again on Thursday, EPIC developers emphasized that no applications or paperwork have been filed with local or state agencies and no construction has started on the project.
“This project is simply the victim of racial profiling,” said Cogdell.
“The public deserves to know the truth about this project and this community. We will review every inquiry and cooperate fully with each agency and office, and make sure the truth is known,” he said.
Similar Muslim-owned developments are being challenged by residents in Blue Ridge, a small town in Collin County just north of the proposed EPIC City development.
