directives are not always clear, and the urban policy recommendations are far from
specific. One reason for this is that Agenda 21is essentially a low-income nation
‘agenda’; and in low income nations well over half the population is rural-living,
leaving the lesser urban population to get by as best it can.^22 Thus rich and poor
nations alike should not seek much in the way of direct urban social direction or
actionable urban reform from Agenda 21.^23
Ex-urban sprawl control
(Refer also to the Urban-Rural Patterning passage in chapter 4.)
Rural-residential settlement on land of marginal utility to farming
is the only circumstance for accepting a discrete quasi-rural style
of rural land occupation for city-focused dwellers desiring to live
beyond the city fringe as an option of democratic choice in an
open society.^24 Given the water-conserving, waste-management
and solar energy collection technologies now available, it has
become feasible for ex-urban lifestyler’s to have no publicly pro-
vided and maintained services – aside from access to a legal road.
This means that whatever utilities householders connect to, they can be expected
to make full payment for installation, including any requirement or preference for
utility under-grounding. On-site services must of course be installed in accordance
with local government conservation, building envelope, impact control rules, and
residential-rural building codes. This consti-
tutes the exceptional case for allowing
discretely sited residential buildings in low-
density forever, self-serviced, residential-
rural broad-acre (lifestyle) zones, but again
only for locations where the soils or topog-
raphy are declared useless for agriculture.
Much housing already built in the
ex-urban landscape is poorly sited, highly
profiled, garishly decorated, awkward of
access, neglectful of its landscape setting,
and construed antagonistically in relation
to any neighbours. Yet, in contrast, some
residential-rural dwellings are placed as
if by the hand of God: carefully profiled,
sensitively clad and effectively landscaped
into their setting. Additional to the physi-
cal considerations is a raft of socio-eco-
nomic concerns, particularly for poorer
families situated in remote quasi-urban locations where this is a lowest-cost
option. The problem is that ‘Out in two-acre (0.8 ha) zoning country old ideas of
neighbourhood and neighbourliness are hard to sustain’ (Barnett’s The Fractured
Urban Growth Management 211Ex-urban: a band, ring or
belt – but more usually
corridors. The quasi-
urban (also peri-urban)
residential-rural living
beyond the suburban
edge of larger towns and
cities, most notably
within settler societies.‘Scenic’ Highway 16, NZ. A shifted on city house
dumped on a hilltop.Again shifted on, but discreetly sited and landscaped.