Welcome to the Neighborhood! Meet our First Babcock Ranch Residents
We are so excited to welcome our very first homeowners at Babcock Ranch! Richard and Robin Kinley of Acworth, Georgia signed Babcock Ranch’s first sales contract on January 19.
The Draw of a Town that Runs on Solar
The Kinley’s interest in Babcock Ranch dates all the way back to 2006. “I am an avid reader of tech blogs and in 2006, I read about this idea of a solar city and I thought it was fascinating,” says Richard. “As you can see by my Tesla hat, I am an early adopter of new technology.”
“I do like the idea of a solar powered community and sustainable living,” said Robin. “I also love the warm weather and I enjoy the whole coastal kind of attitude. I grew up and spent a lot of my younger years in Hawaii and South Florida in an area that had horse ranches and was very similar to this. It reminds me of my high school days.”
Living in a Walkable and Bikeable Town
As the Kinleys learned more about the lifestyle Kitson & Partners has created at Babcock Ranch, they were taken by the idea of of living in a walkable, bikeable place with a small town vibe that incorporates the technologies of the future, including autonomous cars.
“One of our requirements was that we could walk to somewhere to get a soda or get an ice-cream cone and ride bikes without worrying about getting hit,” said Richard. “I’m looking forward to being able to bike 12 months a year and I think living here you don’t have any excuses not to exercise. I grew up in a small town in Delaware near the coast and I knew everybody in the town and people did walk and talk to each other. It seems like a long time ago that we had that kind of situation to where we knew everybody, could talk to everybody. There was also a town park area where people would meet up. In a lot of ways, moving to Babcock Ranch is going back to that very warm and kind of
comforting situation.”
Buying a Home at Babcock Ranch
The Kinleys selected the 2,372 square feet under air Heirloom floor plan at Lake Timber. The plan features a den at the front of the home that will be used by Robin as a quilting and sewing studio, a guest bedroom that will be transformed into Richard’s office, a master suite, a great room, dining area and island kitchen, an outdoor living area overlooking a lake, and a two-car garage that will be outfitted with a 90-amp outlet to charge Richard’s electric car. Like each of the homes at Babcock Ranch, the Kinley’s new home will be built to Florida Green Building Coalition Certification standards and include a front porch positioned close to the sidewalk to encourage conversations with passersby.
“I was impressed by how many different floor plans they offered,” said Robin. “Typically, you go into a subdivision type place and they say ‘This is it, this is your plan, this is what you get and there are no choices.’ It seems like they are very open to working with you and adding and subtracting. There are so many different lifestyles now. There are people with blended families, people adopting kids later on in life, and all sorts of things to where you need that sort of flexibility when you go to buy a house.”
“I was looking forward to a single-story home,” said Richard. “In the past when I looked at different floorplans there was something I always had to sacrifice. I said ‘Robin, this one has no sacrifices. It has everything we want and need and it doesn’t have anything extra that we’ll need to keep clean or keep up. It has just what we need and so that sealed the deal. The lot we purchased is just close enough to downtown, but not too close. There are nice natural buffers built in so we look forward to many sunset walks around the community. We were here last night and sat down in the middle of our lot and watched the sunset and took pictures and we look forward to many more of those evenings.”
We can’t wait to share more of these stories as our pioneers make their way into Babcock Ranch! To learn more about homes for sale at Babcock Ranch, call us at (941) 235-6900 or contact us here.