Have you heard about Babcock Ranch? It’s tucked away in southwest Florida, and it’s aiming to be a blueprint for future urban developers in the face of climate change.
When Hurricane Ian churned past her home in southwest Florida last year, Mary Frisbee shrugged off worries. She watched TV and surfed the internet.
That’s because she and her husband live in Babcock Ranch, a town near the US Gulf Coast that was created with two imperatives: homes have to be built sustainably, and must be able to withstand hurricanes, a constant menace.
The community takes nature deeply into account.
To avoid flooding caused by storms, Babcock Ranch is built some nine meters (30 feet) above sea level. Town planners also preserved wetlands in the area, which act as sponges for excess water.
Local lakes are interconnected with the wetlands by a system of pumps that prevent overflows. And if they do occur, water floods the streets, roads and ponds, not the houses.
The first test came in September 2022 with Ian, a powerful category 4 hurricane, and it was a success. No resident suffered major damage, there were no power outages and only a few trees fell.
From theory to practice
Babcock Ranch seems lifted from a postcard. Homes with perfect lawns overlook lakes. Bike paths and forest roads wend through the community. In the parks, kids ride bikes or climb on swings, supervised by parents or grandparents.
Syd Kitson, developer of Babcock Ranch, speaks to AFP.
The town, which opened in 2018, has 7,200 residents, but continues to expand with new neighborhoods. Eventually it is expected to have a population of about 50,000.
Syd Kitson, a retired professional US soccer player, is the developer. In 2005, his company paid $700 million for a 372 square kilometer (92,000 acre) ranch, most of which it sold to the state of Florida, which wanted to establish a nature reserve there.
On the land he kept—some 72 square kilometers (18,000 acres)—Kitson conceived his dream city: a place with housing, stores and schools that would attract young families and retirees choosing to make their home in the Florida sun.
On the outskirts, 680,000 solar panels make the city the first in the United States to run entirely on solar. Power lines are buried underground to protect them from wind and prevent outages during storms.
On paper, everything looked good. But then on September 28, 2022, Ian came roaring through.
And the trust that homeowners like Mary Frisbee or Donald Bishop, a 78-year-old neighbor who had already lost a house in Mississippi to a hurricane, had placed in Babcock Ranch was put to the test.
Kitson said he couldn’t sleep on the night of the storm.
A girl rides a bicycle at Founder’s Square in Babcock Ranch, Florida.
“We hadn’t been tested yet, so you never know. At the time, there were about 5,000 people living here,
