Sustainability at the Urban Rural Fringe
2017
Category:catégorie : Feature Article of the Year / Article de fond de l'année
Cian O'Neill BASc, MPL and Dr. Patricia Collins BSc, MSc, PhD
This well written article presented common challenges in planning along the urban/rural fringe. The concept of the ‘agriburb’ blends the best of New urbanism approaches with the goals of agricultural land preservation to become a new mix of land uses. The authors use an objective method of evaluating the sustainability of agriburbs. In addition, findings of the comparison reveal that agrburbs may compromise the benefits of both suburban nor agricultural developments. The article provides both positive and negative arguments, however concludes that agriburbs may not be an approach that can be widely replicated to produce sustainable communities. In the end, the reader takes away some key lessons learned.The article offers some interesting visuals and is easy to read. Nice to see an article that features a brave attempt at creating a new sustainable urban typology.