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Designing with Nature, Not Against – It Takes a Village (or Town)

The continued growth and success of Babcock Ranch, the US’s first solar-powered town, serves as an inspiration for communities around the world seeking to leave a positive impact on the planet.

When venturing out to create something new, there is no roadmap to follow. When your innovative idea falls in between a unique dichotomy of traditional best practices (ex: the building industry) and a more nascent field (ex: renewable energy), the stakes could not be higher or more convoluted.

That was the stage in 2006, when we made a historic land purchase and took our first steps to deliver on the idea of Babcock Ranch — the US’s first solar-powered town, one of the country’s largest solar-plus-battery storage systems, which withstood a category 4 hurricane in 2022.

Ranked as the nation’s fifth-best-selling master planned community in 2022, Babcock Ranch now encompasses 18,000 acres and is planned for 19,500 residences and 6,000,000 square feet of commercial space. However, that was not always the case; and the journey to get to this milestone quite literally took “all hands” and a village — or in this case, the State of Florida. We rallied the nation’s largest home builders, the nation’s largest clean-energy provider, elected officials, engineers, architects and biologists to create a new city that works in harmony with nature.

Image credit: Babcock Ranch

If the world is serious about getting to net zero by 2030 (or 2050), economies will need to rethink how they function — and solar power will have to play a larger role in both community infrastructure and the energy mix. That level of commitment, planning and redesign will require collaboration among leading innovators, regulators, investors and developers. Creating a fully sustainable, climate-resilient town was not (and is not) easy — it took many individuals, organizations and partners to achieve the Babcock Ranch you see today. If you are going to build something never done before, my first piece of advice: Do not do it alone.

Foundational trust is key

Building anything requires purchasing land and obtaining permits. Brokering those types of deals can be challenging — especially when working with families, two counties, the state, tax issues and stock sales. Success in this arena can only be achieved with foundational trust and delivering on your promises.

Soon after the purchase was complete, we did something never done before — we sold 73,000 acres back to the State of Florida to be permanently conserved for future generations to enjoy. The land purchase and preservation alone required collaboration with the state, county officials, environmental leaders and state legislators. The real hurdle at that time was showing “proof of concept” for a town that had yet to be built and whose industry-leading infrastructure had never been tested.

With that in mind, Babcock Ranch secured commitment for solar generation from a key partner, Florida Power & Light (FPL), in 2008 — but legislative approval was needed, because solar was not yet cost competitive with traditional, natural gas-generating plants; it took us eight years to get the solar power agreement in place. During that time, legislative requests failed — which delayed construction until 2015, when solar-generation costs became comparable to fossil fuels, eliminating the need for legislative approval.

While working with the state and FPL to broker an agreement on power generation, Kitson & Partners spent six years planning the community amidst a devastating recession and real estate downturn, before starting construction in late 2015. We knew early on we would need to garner local support if we wanted this idea to take off. We began hosting charrettes with the local community, design professionals and environmental organizations to offer everyone and anyone a seat at the table that wanted to see this project come to life. In the early 2000s, we truly believed that clean energy and sustainable development could be “the future of development” around the world — and today, because of Babcock Ranch, others can now see that vision, too.

Seek input from established experts

Half of Babcock Ranch’s footprint is dedicated to greenways, parks and lakes — with an active trail system that will expand to more than 100 miles through preserved and restored ecosystems. Starting with a thorough understanding of the land’s natural systems, we have located development areas where they will have the least impact. To ensure we were doing right by nature, we worked closely with a host of environmental groups — including The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, The Florida Wildlife Federation, Audubon of Florida, 1,000 Friends of Florida, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Florida Recreation and Park Association — which advised on the project.

Due in part to the cohort of environmental partnerships that Babcock Ranch worked with early on, as well as Kitson & Partners’ vision for the solar community, the town is far beyond its time when it comes to sustainable development. Babcock Ranch aligns itself with the Florida Green Building Coalition’s (FGBC) Green Land Development program — which focuses on conservation, restoration and preservation; multi-modal circulation; and safe access to daily services, hardened utilities, parks and nature, and education. Babcock Ranch is the first and only community in Florida to have earned a Platinum FGBC certification, which is known to reduce energy consumption.

The town is also at the forefront when it comes to water conservation: The landscape design requires native plants to be planted throughout the community to reduce water consumption; all irrigation uses reclaimed water; natural stormwater-management systems restore historic flow-ways and utilize natural and created wetlands to slow and clean surface flow; and a weir system rehydrates wetlands and habitat enhancements for native species, such as the endangered Florida Panther. In fact, Babcock Ranch’s integrated water-management system set a new standard for watershed protection and flood control — exceeding requirements of Charlotte County, Lee County, the Water Management District, and the Army Corp of Engineers.

Many of the features that make Babcock Ranch a leader in sustainable development offer a dual benefit: They also ensure climate resilience. For example, native plants can withstand wet and dry conditions (and hurricanes) and quickly rebound; filter marshes and wetlands greatly expand storage capacity; and underground power distribution, combined with hardening of incoming transmission lines, keep power flowing. Babcock Ranch is more than a solar-powered town — it is a living laboratory for testing sustainable practices.

Secure and retain formidable partnerships

To remain at the forefront of innovation, we must continue to work with industry-leading partners that see standards as a floor to begin their work.

Power and utility

Early on, Babcock Ranch achieved its renewable-energy goals by partnering with FPL to operate its 150-MW solar array utilizing more than 700,000 panels across 880 acres of land — through this partnership, Babcock Ranch was the first town to generate more renewable energy than it will ever consume.

But it does not end there: FPL is currently researching and testing battery-storage technology aimed at improving the predictability and reliability of solar power. The 10-MW battery storage added in March 2018 made the Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center the largest solar-plus-storage project operating in the US at the time. As for connectivity, Babcock Ranch partnered with Lumen to provide one gigabyte of fiber to every home and up to 10 gigabytes to each business. We are working with FPL on the construction of a solar education center, which will offer an interactive educational experience and the opportunity to view the solar array from a three-story observation tower.

Image credit: Babcock Ranch

Education

Supported by Governor Jeb Bush, the decision to open a public charter school at Babcock Ranch before the first residents arrived was a calculated risk with great rewards. Now offering K-12, the school has attracted young families that make the community a vibrant, multigenerational hometown. Babcock Ranch’s sustainability and conservation principles provide a great landscape for hands-on, project-based learning about nature, health and renewable energy. Babcock Neighborhood School offers a “greenSTEAM” education that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics for grades K-8; Babcock High School also offers a well-rounded STEAM educational experience.

Health

In 2018, Babcock Ranch partnered with Lee Health to establish Lee Physician Group Clinic, located in the town’s Wellness Center, to perform medical services and advance health initiatives for all residents.

In Fall 2023, Babcock Ranch announced a partnership with Tampa General Hospital — one of the nation’s leading academic health systems and the highest-ranked hospital in West Central Florida — to open an Urgent Care (powered by Fast Track) in 2025. Babcock Ranch’s rapid growth has accelerated demand for local access to quality healthcare. With the planned Tampa General Hospital Urgent Care and doctors, residents will soon have access to immediate care from world-class providers for common illnesses and injuries. They will also gain more efficient and timely access to the specialists and experts across the academic health system with the help of care navigators.

The hometown of tomorrow

Babcock Ranch has partnered with 11 national and regional builders to push the envelope on innovation for sustainable, modern design. We do not settle for best practices — which is why the nation’s leading builders have agreed to work collaboratively on this constantly evolving project to redefine what sustainable living looks like.

The Babcock Ranch team continues to monitor changing environmental demands and technological advances to continue leading the sustainability movement in Florida and beyond. The town’s continued growth and success serves as an inspiration for communities around the world seeking to leave a positive (or neutral) impact on the planet.

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