“We haven’t had a power bill yet,” said William, 76, a retired contractor who spent decades building custom homes before moving to Florida. “If I ever do build another house, it’s going to have solar. It makes quite a difference.”
Hunters Point is the first residential development in the world to get a LEED Zero Energy certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which means the entire community produces more electricity than it consumes. This style of construction offers a model of sustainable building in an era of climate change, according to Avery McEvoy, who researches carbon-free electricity at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean-energy think tank.
“When you’re building a home or building a community, you’re investing in your own generation, but also future generations,” she said. “The more that we plan in an integrated, sustainable way for the future, the more resilient our communities will be.”
In addition to reducing planet-warming carbon emissions, the solar panels and batteries in the homes at Hunters Point make them less likely to lose power in a storm. When Hurricane Ian slammed into southwestern Florida in 2022 and left millions without power — including homeowners across the street from Hunters Point — the Fulfords’ lights stayed on.
“I feel really safe here,” said William. “We went through one hurricane here already … and this neighborhood didn’t lose power, so it didn’t affect us.”
Resilience matters to this coastal neighborhood because Hunters Point sits on a low, canal-lined peninsula jutting out into Sarasota Bay. It’s protected from the storm-surge-prone Gulf of Mexico by a narrow barrier island less than 1,000 feet wide at its nearest point.
Pearl Homes, the Florida-based developer behind the project, elevated the streets of Hunters Point 3.5 feet above the existing ground level and created a low-lying central park that allows water to drain off the road after floods. Each of the homes is built atop a first-floor garage, so that all the rooms are at least 17 feet above sea level. The walls are designed to withstand 150-mile-per-hour winds.