Agricultural Urbanism?

Good Magazine recently published an article entitled, Agriculture is the New Golf: Rethinking Suburban Communities.  According to the story,

In cities, agriculture might be able to take the place of vacant lots. And in suburbia? Well, in 2008, the New Urbanism evangelist Andrés Duany, of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), architects and town planners, proclaimed that “agriculture is the new golf,” a prescient and deliberately provocative claim that is helping frame the conversation about suburbia’s future. “Only 17 percent of people living in golf-course communities play golf more than once a year. Why not grow food?”

Agricultural Urbanism might be a solution to Hawaii's development challenge: preserving agriculture and green space, while providing homes for Hawaii's residents.  But, as the story observes,

[W]ill lenders, builders, and developers see the big picture? “I think developers w[i]ll understand that things need to change—that when the economy comes back it will be different,” says [Galina Tachieva of of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company ]. “The majority of leaders, politicians, and planners know that things will be different. It’s not possible to do the same from a financial point of view.”

Can Hawaii's leaders work with landowners and developers to bring about practicable change?  We shall see.

For stories related to planning see Planning.