This Florida mega-development is turning suburban backyards into a nature paradise

Sunbridge appears to be a quintessential example of 21st century sprawl. A 27,000-acre residential mega-development taking shape outside of Orlando, Florida, it’s set to include more than 30,000 new homes in total when complete—a few neighborhoods, miles of trails, and a K–8 school have already been completed. It’s riding a growth boom in Central Florida; this fast-growing section of the Sun Belt has added more than 1,000 people every week in recent years.

But within the different subdivisions being constructed at Sunbridge over the next 30 years, a landscape will emerge with each new home and green space that’s much more wild, native, and sustainable than the stereotypical manicured, monoculture green lawns ringed with white picket fences. 

“My spiel for Sunbridge is that you leave your house and in 10 minutes, you’re immersed in nature,” says Clint Beaty, senior vice president of Operations at Tavistock Development Company, which is developing Sunbridge. “I’m not talking about a single tree next to a retention pond. I mean a deer is going to walk up to you, and you may see bald eagles, all 15 minutes from the Orlando International Airport.”

Sunbridge was just named the nation’s first Homegrown National Park Community, a designation highlighting the project’s focus on native plants, nature conservation, and sustainability focused on restoring a measure of biodiversity. Containing an array of different single-family homes, constructed by different developers, mostly ranging in price between $300,000 and $600,000, the larger development will feature a slate of standard suburban homes.

According to Tavistock, a majority of the plants will be native, and interspersed with all those homes will be 13,000 acres that will be preserved as an interconnected network of natural habitats, including ​​lakes, wetlands, and oak hammocks, a type of forest habitat native to Florida and the Southeast. 

Conservation goes private

Typical Florida developers often put the most expensive homes on the water and charge a premium; Sunbridge will leave those waterfronts open and wild for all to enjoy. In the long term, Beaty says, this philosophy will drive value; the challenge is, in the short term, getting homebuyers to understand that.

The Homegrown National Park concept—a marketing term, not an actual registered and protected public place—was cofounded by scientist and author Doug Tallamy, and aims to regenerate and restore 20 million acres of native habitat across the U.S., mostly on private land, in an effort to stem the biodiversity crisis. The pollution and the loss of habitat have put roughly 40% of animals, plants, and ecosystems in the U.S. at risk. The nation currently has 44 million acres of traditional green turflawn, which Tallamy calls “dead space” in terms of its ability to support diverse species and local ecosystems. Why should we develop property in a way that expels nature?

And while Tallamy says there are parks and preserves for preservation of wildlife, if 78% of the U.S. is privately owned—85% of land east of the Mississippi is in private hands—something has to make landowners take biodiversity more seriously. He hopes Sunbridge becomes the first of many such developments, and can help make the case to landowners that this strategy is both cost-effective and consumer friendly.

“If we don’t do conservation on private property, we’re going to fail,” he says. “You can’t say we’re not going to do conservation where we develop, because that’s everywhere.”

Landscaping the future

While the Homegrown National Park focuses on flora and fauna, the team behind Sunbridge came to the idea while looking at water. Like other fast-growing parts of the country, such as Phoenix, Central Florida faces water shortages and hard limits on growth if business-as-usual development continues. The Central Florida Water Initiative predicts the region will face a 96 million gallon-per-day water shortfall starting in 2045. 

The landscaping philosophy of Homegrown National Park—native plants that require much less water, less maintenance, and less fertilizer—can reduce irrigation and fertilizer runoff. Sunbridge developers estimate that when the entire project is complete and occupied in the coming decades, the planned Florida-native and drought-tolerant landscaping palette will save between 39,000 to 146,300 gallons of water daily, and help cut outdoor water use by 75%. 

In addition, it will contain what’s called keystone plants, native species, such as live oaks, that support local insects and animals. Tallamy says that traditional American landscaping, which uses a variety of non-native plants for decorative purposes, doesn’t feed local species and can disrupt the existing food web.

Developers hope this plan not only allows the development to grow without bumping up against resource limits, but also proves to be a point of differentiation that attracts future buyers and even adds a premium to home prices. They’ve been aggressively marketing the development’s trails, greenspace, lakes, and landscape, dubbing it a “naturehood.”

Beaty, who grew up in Florida, remembers playing in backyards in July with brown grass as a kid, since it was so challenging to water. Ever since Disney came to Florida, he says, that’s the (artificial) expectation people have of the Florida front yard. 

“This is the horticultural challenge of our time,” says Tallamy. “How do we make ecologically accessible landscapes that are also pretty?”

Finding the solution in sprawl

It may seem counterintuitive to count suburban developments as part of the solution to the biodiversity crisis, since they’re a significant cause of the problem in the U.S. Sprawl development in the 21st century alone has eaten up more than two million acres annually in the U.S., according to the Center for Biological Diversity, leading to significant habitat and species loss: roads, fences and structures break up habitats; fertilizers and pollution harm plants; and light and noise pollution impact animal health.

While Sunbridge remains the first large development to sign on, Homegrown National Park has also been busy with other collaborations, partnering with regional and state Native Plant Societies, including the Native Plant Society of Texas, to engage and support developers and HOAs that are interested in integrating the Homegrown National Park model.

One of the challenges going forward will be maintaining the initial philosophy of native plantings and more sustainability minded landscaping. Since there aren’t necessarily strong ways to mandate lawn care or plant choice—there won’t be an overarching homeowners association enforcing standards—Beaty hopes the good faith approach they’re taking, which favors carrots instead of sticks, will prove itself over time. 

This will include a number of resources and support, including publishing a curated list of native plants, and a variety of community programs to help with lawn care and to promote conservation. Residents will also be given digital water dashboards to help monitor their consumption, and messaging about how a healthier, more native lawn means fewer chemicals that aren’t good for your kids and a lower utility bill every month. 

Advocates say these kinds of development agreements, and efforts at urban rewilding in cities, can, along with the vital preservation of remaining natural habitat, help slow and ideally reverse the biodiversity loss being felt around the globe. Tallamy says that scientists already understand what needs to be done to fix the biodiversity crisis. Projects like Sunbridge, which seek to sell residents on the benefits of a more biodiverse landscape, can help get more momentum behind deploying those solutions. 

“We know how to increase biodiversity,” he says. “What we’re fighting now are sociological problems.”

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