Construction is bustling at Florida’s first ‘sustainable town’

PUNTA GORDA, United States: With deep pockets and an environmentalist’s zeal, retired American football player Syd Kitson dreamed up a plan to build the United States’ first solar-powered town on a vast swath of rural land in southwest Florida.

Now, nearly a decade after he first purchased the 91,000 acres (37,000 hectares) known as Babcock Ranch, construction is bustling at what developers say will be the nation’s first eco-friendly city, built from the ground up, with enough room for some 50,000 people.