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In Central Florida, where the Ronald Reagan Turnpike meets Highway 441, lies a largely empty area of old cattle ranches and swamp known locally as Yeehaw Junction. Over the next decade property developers backed by a fast-food billionaire, and with the blessing of Bill Clinton, the former president, hope to turn the site into an eco city the size of Washington DC. If, that is, they can ever get the plans off the drawing board.
Destiny Florida is being developed by the property entrepreneur Anthony Pugliese and is backed by Fred DeLuca, the billionaire co-founder of Subway, the sandwich chain. It is far more ambitious than the usual Florida land grab.
Destiny intends to be green from the ground up, a hub of eco-friendly business built round an environmentally friendly city that will preserve much of the rich local landscape. When finished, Pugliese hopes that “Destiny will position itself not just as the global model for sustainable building in the 21st century but also become the hub of green technology — like a [green] Silicon Valley for the United States, if not the world.”
His plans, now being drawn up by Arup, the London-based design and engineering firm, certainly seem to have impressed Clinton. But some critics are already doubting Destiny’s green credentials, claiming that its plans are nebulous and getting more so. A failure in Florida would be a black eye for the Clinton Climate Initiative, which supports “climate positive” developments in mainly urban areas. Read rest of article from Times Online |
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