Destiny Florida, The Country's First "Eco-Sustainable" City
Destiny Florida is a proposed "Eco-Sustainable" city near Orlando Florida. The city's website bills the project as " a prototype for future cities, a forward-thinking community operating with minimal impact on the environment and a scientific hub where the latest clean technology innovations will emerge. " but the site really provides little in the way of substance.
An article published today at orlandosentinel.com gives a bit more information. Saying the 41000 plus acre city in the south east corner of Osceola County will use waterways for transportation and to contain sprawl. The city will contain an abundance of bike and hunting trails as well as a "floating market". The developers are also talking of building a denser city to preserve much of the natural habitat that exists in the area now.
Living only about an hour from Orlando, I'm a little surprised I'm just now hearing about this project. On the other hand the first concrete information about the proposed city is being unveiled today. I'm hoping I can find some of that information in the next few days to post as a follow up.
I find the idea of an green city to be really cool. It's not the first and it won't be the last. However I do wonder, should we be building new green cities or should we be looking into making our existing cities greener? It's interesting to see what can be done when things are sustainable from the start but what about fixing what we already have? Can what we learn in endeavors like Destiny be applied to our current wasteful and polluting cities? I think so, as long as cities like this are built with a mind towards applying their lessons to other established places.
I'm excited to see what kinds of knowledge and technology we get from Destiny that will make all our lives a little greener. I'm hoping it's the seed that lets clean, reliable and convenient public transportation and solar power really take root down here in the Sunshine state.