Urban Experience

Babcock Ranch Planned Community

"What are the three components of the triple bottom line of sustainability? People, profit, and planet. Babcock Ranch is a town that has been designed from the beginning to address all three. In some ways, starting a town from scratch makes it easier to do that rather than retrofitting an existing town to be more sustainable"

Babcock is a fair example of sustainable community, but with a large professional golf course that had to destroy land, uses excess water in a community that prides itself on water preservation, and the use of pesticides to keep these non-native grasses healthy, they are not exactly sustainable. 

No matter how much solar you have, when you have 4,000+ sq ft homes that advertises irrigation it requires a LOT of natural resources to live in these homes. While not actually producing anything toward the community. I did appreciate the smaller homes that had native shrubs, and hoping the mulch is sustainably sourced. Pine needles help create the PH our and organic content our soil needs,and should be used in favor of mulch. 

(home in the estate community with turf grass and non-native palms trees)

"What is green infrastructure?  It involves the use of green spaces – vegetation and other living parts of the biosphere – as support systems for the functioning of a community. In more traditional development, this infrastructure is made of concrete – ditches and culverts and pipes. At Babcock, this system is made up of rain gardens, bioswales, and filter marshes. Lake Babcock Drive, the main road we travelled coming into town, does not have traditional curbs. Instead the curbs are flat to allow stormwater to flow into the rain gardens that line the roadway. The rain gardens are depressions that hold water on site." 

A wonderful way of recreating how our native environments work. It was also wonderful to see the older trees that have been moved vs clear cut for lumber. I would like to see the roofs of the buildings planted with greenery. As there are no solar panels on them, they are lost spaces to cool the roofs and grow food. 

COMPLETE STREETS & TRANSPORTATION CHOICES A good urban environment will accommodate all modes of transportation and offers convenient, comfortable and safe access, regardless of a person’s age or ability. Building a sustainable urban environment promotes diverse transportation options such as walking, bicycling, transit and even integrates motor vehicles where appropriate and safe.

So, while I believe Babcock is a decent start, it was far more about profit than planet. So what can we do to improve future endeavors? Look to those who have not stopped at acceptable, but forged the way to sustainable. 

"Central to the development is its commitment to sustainability, including dwelling energy ratings between 8.8 and 9.3 stars, common gardens and orchards, rain-water harvesting, a grey water system, vehicle access peripheral to the housing cluster, comprehensive passive solar design and an integrated solar PV/battery storage system. Primarily built from hempcrete, DecoHousing adds weight to the growing push for this innovative material to be widely used in the building industry." (https://sustainablehouseday.com/listing/decohousing-denmark-family-homes/)

This is an imperative centerpiece of any sustainable community. Unlike the older population of Florida, the rest of the world sports younger people who still have to work. One of my favorite countries to look to for inspiration is Denmark. Small units, communal kitchens, orchards, gardens, solar, greenhouses, etc. I've had the pleasure of visiting one, and it was a long weekend of reliving what my tribe was before we all left to make money. Folks in these communities are of all ages, work, go to uni, raise families, retired, etc. 

Right behind Denmark, for me is the well proven Israeli Kibbutzim. 

“Today, everything we produce or consume is organic,” says Shaul, adding that the products are sold once a week at an organic shuk (market) nearby. Kibbutz Neot Semadar also recycles and composts any waste.

In addition to its sustainable food system, the kibbutz specializes in desert construction, building structures in a manner best suited to the climate. The buildings feature thick, adobe walls insulated with mud-based bricks, according to Shaul, and use passive air cooling towers to minimize energy consumption.

The kibbutz also has two photovoltaic plants, one large and one small, for energy production and an extensive sewage program from constructed wetlands where water plants and gravel purify the water naturally." (https://nocamels.com/2017/12/israeli-kibbutzim-sustainable-living/)

Volunteers at Kibbutz Neot Semadar. Courtesy Kibbutz Neot Semadar via NoCamels

While these communities in the US are geared toward income produced by starting a community of homogenized people who can afford these often high price tag homes, the above are not. They focus on community and sustainability first, which in turn will produce an income. 

"Drawing on common principles of affordable and sustainable housing, co-housing has become a successful model for neighbourhood development in many towns and cities around the world. Construction of the twelve strata dwellings, common house and shared facilities was primarily funded by resident shareholder investment, with additional financing from Social Enterprise Finance Australia. Having shares in our own development company cut out a substantial developer profit margin, and ensured that homes were designed, built and managed by residents, with the assistance of professional architects, planners, builders and other specialists." (https://sustainablehouseday.com/listing/decohousing-denmark-family-homes/)