Babcock Ranch Florida
Babcock Ranch is an approximately 17,000-acre (68.80 km2; 26.56 sq mi) planned community under development in Southwest Florida that was approved as part of a public-private partnership strategy with the State of Florida and local governments. The deal established the neighboring Babcock Ranch Preserve.
Plans for the future town of Babcock Ranch were announced in 2005 by real estate development firm Kitson & Partners as part of a complex real estate transaction that facilitated the largest conservation land acquisition in Florida history. In 2009, the company joined with Florida Power & Light to announce plans to make Babcock Ranch the first solar-powered city in the United States. The largest photovoltaic power station in the world and a network of rooftop solar panels on commercial buildings, planned to be expanded over time, are intended to send more renewable power into the Florida electrical grid than the city consumes. Kitson & Partners have stated their goal is for Babcock Ranch to be the "world's most sustainable city". Construction got underway in November 2015 and the beginning of construction was celebrated on Earth Day 2016.
Occupying land in both Charlotte and Lee counties near Fort Myers, Babcock Ranch was named after Edward Vose Babcock, a lumber baron and mayor of Pittsburgh (1918–1922), who purchased the land in 1914. The land's primary use was logging and agriculture, and those uses continue to generate funds for maintenance and operation of the Babcock Ranch Preserve. The Babcock Ranch Preserve Act enacted by the Florida legislature in 2006 made it the first Florida preserve responsible for generating its own funding under a public private management partnership that includes the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Forest Service.
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