Creating a sustainable community out of nothing is tough. Making it real is even tougher.

I spent a couple of days at Babcock Ranch last month, 17,000 acres of “planned community” in the hinterlands of Southwest Florida. My mind is awhirl with observations and questions that go deeper than the sticks and bricks of homebuilding. I’m wondering what drives people like project creator Syd Kitson to burn their life’s candle for so many years on a vast and sprawling epicenter of mixed-use living.