Assertion Supported
Babcock Ranch was the only SW Florida community keeping power during Ian
“We're the only place in southwest Florida that didn't lose electricity.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: Babcock Ranch has 150MW of solar on 840 acres
“And today, we have a 150 megawatts, just to put that in perspective, that's 700,000 panels on 840 acres.”
Insight
Kitson: Multi-generational Florida towns require jobs and schools to avoid retiree defaults
“And in Florida, you gotta be really careful because you can easily default to just wanting to have... Retirees... So how do you prevent that? Well, you have to have two things. One is jobs, but more importantly, a school.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: Babcock Ranch Sustained Very Little Damage From Category 4 Hurricane Ian
“When I got out the next morning and drove the property, drove over for four or five hours just meeting with neighbors, and other than maybe some shingles on some of the homes, there's very little damage.”
Opinion
Rebuilding coastal homes to 20-year-old standards is a big mistake
“To rebuild a house the way that it was built 20 years ago is, is, in my mind, is, is a big mistake. Because these storms are going to happen again. It, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.”
Opinion
Kitson: Florida Real Estate Opportunities Outpaced the Northeast
“And the opportunities down in Florida were so much greater than up in the Northeast where prices were going up, you're competing with builders”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: 1,000 people move to Florida each day
“And when you look at, you know, Florida as an example, a thousand people a day are moving down to the state of Florida.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson won Babcock Ranch despite lower bid to guarantee massive conservation
“We were not the highest offer, but they went with us, and they gave us one year to do what would normally take five, maybe seven years to do. We had to negotiate with the state of Florida the sale of 73,000 acres.”
Disclosure
Kitson planned Babcock Ranch as America's first solar-powered town
“We wanted to be the first solar power town in America.”
Disclosure
Kitson purposefully sited Babcock Ranch inland to prevent hurricane storm surge
“There's no luck in, in that at all. I was very purposeful. We wanted to be above the storm surge. We want to be certain that during a hurricane that that our residents, that we will all be safe that it wouldn't flood and that a storm surge wouldn't be wouldn't…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kitson: Half of Babcock Ranch residents work from home
“As a matter of fact, a lot of the people here that that moved here opened up businesses here and half of the people here work from home.”
Insight
Working with natural water flowways is essential because nature always wins
“Mother nature is going to put that water where it wants to put that water. You can do all you want, but mother nature is going to win every single time. So we said, let's work with the nature. Let's not work against it.”
Assertion Partly supported
Kitson: Babcock Ranch uses predictive smart systems to regulate lake levels
“Our lake system actually has a smart water management system where it, a computer can predict What the weather's gonna be like in seven to 10 days, and then regulate the amount of water that's in that lake.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: Babcock Ranch lakes are designed to overflow into roads safely
“We actually told the homeowners that in the unlikely event that one of your lakes overflowed, they're designed to do that, and it will, it'll, it'll actually drain between your homes into the roads and then off the property.”
Disclosure
Babcock Ranch partnered with top builders to test novel housing tech
“We have something called Innovation Way here, where we got the three top builders in the country to build homes with technology in them that's not being used today, and to test it, see how it works, and then ultimately, hopefully, implement that into the homes…”
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2028
Kitson predicts Babcock Ranch will eventually incorporate as an independent town
“Eventually it will incorporate, it'll be its own town and it will have a, you know, whether it's a mayor or whatever form of government that ultimately is, is here.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: My rookie NFL salary was $40,000
“I was a third round draft choice, and I made 40,000 dollars my first year.”
Assertion Supported
Kitson: Florida's initial Babcock Ranch purchase failed over asset vs. stock rules
“It was 91,000 acres, and they negotiated with the family, but the family would only sell the stock, and the state could only buy the assets.”
Assertion Partly supported
Babcock Ranch built a school before homes, immediately filling all seats
“We built a school at Babcock Grants before anybody lived here. I remember we had, we built a school that had a 156 seats... And when it was announced that we had a public charter school, it was or when it was published in the paper, we immediately filled all 1…”
Disclosure
Kitson spends roughly 70% of his time living at Babcock Ranch
“I do live here. I do have a home here, and I probably spend 70% of my time here and really enjoy it.”
