Core Initiatives
The Heart of Babcock Ranch
Fun, wellness, and an appreciation for the environment are important elements of everyday life at Babcock Ranch.
Smart Growth
One Common Goal
Building a new town from the ground up is no small feat. It takes collaboration, creativity, and an intense focus on details. Our Core Initiatives are the heart of Babcock Ranch’s development and will continue to shape our future growth.
Born From a Love Affair with the Land
50% of Babcock Ranch’s footprint is set aside for green spaces, and we’ve intentionally developed our town to include stewardship, sustainability, preservation and restoration as key design features. More than 90% of Babcock Ranch is built upon already impacted pasture, farm and rock-mined land, and developments are surrounded by areas that will remain forested.
Water conservation is woven into the green infrastructure of Babcock Ranch. From landscaping with native, low impact plants to constructing a weir system to restore historical hydraulics of the Curry Lake Preserve ecosystem and rehydrate surrounding wetlands. This area is now home to a thriving ecosystem. Native vegetation has reclaimed the land from invasive species, crayfish have returned to its waters, and hosts of birds once again call Curry Lake home.
Sustainability is at the heart of Babcock Ranch, and these environmental investments are just one of the ways we’ve designed our town to live in harmony with the land. Our homes are all built to Florida Green Building requirements, with community-wide standards for energy-efficiency, conservation, and low-impact landscaping.
Neighborhood parks, community gardens, expansive trails for alternative transportation provide ways for residents to connect with their neighbors and our environment. Through these sustainability efforts, Babcock Ranch provides residents with a greener way of life, and builds upon the Babcock family’s careful stewardship of the land and surrounding preserve areas.
A Healthier, Happier Lifestyle
Living a healthy lifestyle is so much more than getting in your daily exercise. Babcock Ranch provides an unparalleled way of living, with amenities and programs that help you live your happiest, healthiest life.
An integral part of our health system is the Lee Healthy Life Center. This wellness facility in Founder’s Square offers Babcock Ranch residents an array of modern, convenient health services. Visit your Primary Care Physician, see a physical therapist, or take educational health classes. Residents can also find fitness options at Lee Health like Pilates and yoga classes, personal training, basketball, pickleball and a lap pool.
Babcock Ranch provides plenty of other ways to get active and socialize. Our trail system connects neighborhoods and preserve areas and will eventually span 50 miles. Spend an afternoon kayaking or fishing on Lake Babcock, or meet up friends at the dog park. Socializing, education, and spending time outdoors are just as important as exercise and diet in cultivating a fulfilling life.
Learn Where You Live
From early childhood and beyond, Babcock Ranch is focused on delivering best-in-class education. Kindergarten through 8th grade students attend Babcock Neighborhood School. Adjacent to BNS, the new state-of-the-art Babcock High School opened for the 2022-2023 school year. Both schools offer a project-based “greenSTEAM” education that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics. Babcock High School includes 26 classrooms, science labs, multiple assembly areas, and a media room.
At Babcock Ranch, learning isn’t confined to the classroom. Whether at activities and classes through the Healthy Life Center, or at The Hatchery, our own collaborative workspace, you’ll always find bright minds gathering to grow and learn.
A Sunshine State of Mind
As the first solar-powered town in America, clean energy is a way of life at Babcock Ranch. Producing clean energy at a utility scale empowers residents to minimize their environmental footprint at no additional cost.
In partnership with Florida Power & Light, Babcock Ranch houses the FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center and FPL Babcock Preserve Solar Energy Center on 870 acres of land. Each one is capable of generating 75 MW of clean energy, for a combined total of 150 MW capacity and 687,000 solar panels. The FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center ensures that the net production of clean, renewable energy at Babcock Ranch exceeds the total amount the town consumes.
Another exciting part Babcock Ranch’s clean energy program? When completed in March 2018, Babcock Ranch housed the largest solar-plus-storage system operating in the U.S. Created by FPL, these ten large gray steel battery storage units can store 1 megawatt of power and discharge for 4 hours. The new battery storage system ensures a steady supply of power on partly cloudy days and at night.
Want to learn more about solar power and clean energy at Babcock Ranch? Visit the newly opened Solar Ranch – An FPL Eco-Discovery Center for a fun, interactive experience and the opportunity to view our 687,000 solar panels in action from the three story observation tower.
Smarter Than the Average Town
With extraordinary speeds, mobile apps, and community-wide access to free WiFi, Babcock Ranch is truly a city built on technology. Gigabit internet is standard in every home, allowing our residents to connect faster than ever before. Since the earliest days of development, we sought to use information technology to transform life at Babcock Ranch and become the first master-planned, greenfield “smart city” with global network access points.
Our community also serves as a living laboratory that embraces testing and piloting technology projects, from autonomous shuttles to drone delivery service to robotic garbage cans.
Cars? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Cars
Babcock Ranch was designed with walkability and bike-ability in mind. Centrally located retail, co-working spaces, and entertainment destinations are connected by carefully planned trail, sidewalk, and roadway designs that make it easy to live your life while leaving the car at home.
Shelter from the Storm
From building construction and orientation to street design, Babcock Ranch is designed to better withstand the ever-changing weather patterns Florida brings. Homes and businesses are required to include both aesthetic and operable storm shutters or impact glass.
Babcock High School’s new 40,600-square-foot field house also serves as an emergency shelter for the surrounding area. The facility is built to ICC 500 standards for storm shelters and can accommodate up to 1,343 people.
Other important storm safety features include our physical location above the storm surge area, additional buildings that meet ‘shelter in place’ requirements and neighborhood components anchored in place such as park benches, trash and recycling containers.
Where Fun is a Way of Life
As America’s most walkable, hikeable, and bikeable town, Babcock Ranch is linked together by an extensive greenway and trail system. Happiness is a key component to a healthy life, and it’s important to have fun! Engaging and interactive recreation including gathering spaces, nature trails, roadways, and waterways create experiences that make you want to stay longer and spend more time—it’s a place you will never want to leave.
Founder’s Square is currently the hub of social activities and events. With the The Lake House Kitchen + Bar, Slater’s Goods & Provisions, Square Scoops Coffee & Creamery, and Cup a Joe at Curry Creek Outfitters open and more on the way, we’re offering a broad variety of entertaining activities that people of all ages will enjoy.
Residents can also look forward to fun afternoons hanging with neighbors at Lake Timber Lodge and Cypress Lodge. These resident-only amenities offer a one-of-a-kind experience. Lake Timber Lodge is the ideal place to relax while enjoying the great outdoors, with a modern zero-entry pool, bath house, playground, and a 2,000-square-foot deck overlooking Lake Timber. And on the banks of Lake Babcock, Cypress Lodge spans 17,000 square feet and houses a huge swimming pool, a game lawn, and a clubhouse that blends modern comfort with nods to Fred C. Babcock’s historic home on the land.
With our robust calendar of resident events and plentiful amenities, there’s always something to look forward to when you live at Babcock Ranch.
