NEWS

People are starting to move into Babcock Ranch, an ambitious development in Florida more than a decade in the making. With a solar field and self-driving shuttles, it’s a suburb that its creators hope will be revolutionary.

In an attempt to “do it the right way,” developer Syd Kitson is building Babcock Ranch, an 18,000-acre planned community just north of Ft. Meyers, with the hope that it can operate almost entirely on solar power. So far about 200 people have moved in, though Kitson is aiming to lure as many as 50,000 in coming decades while setting a precedent for responsible development. Hari Sreenivasan reports. This is part of our ongoing series, “Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change.”