Assessing the Public Peri-Urban Agricultural Park as a Tool for the Sustainable Planning of Peri-Urban Areas: The Case Study of Prato

Abstract

Inherited and current trends of urbanization result in growing agri–urban mixed land use patterns that strongly call for innovative management and planning tools at the urban/rural interface. This could especially help to cope with both resilience and environmental fairness goals. In this framework, the category of the Agriculture Park (AP) deserves much attention in relating meaningful experiences, especially in Mediterranean areas. This article deepens the category with the aim of assessing its features as a viable tool in the planning domain to jointly protect and enhance peri-urban farmland areas. In particular, the adopted methodology taps into an integrated and holistic approach to define and assess, by design, a multi-purpose model of a Public Agri–urban Park (PAP) drawing on the Public–Private Partnership (PPP) management model (using break-even analysis to define the contents of the PPP itself), inhabitants’ participation, and referring to a typical fringe area in the municipality of Prato (Italy). Results show the potential of the PAP to jointly achieve—according to a proactive model of green spaces’ protection—many sustainable design targets along with new forms of services aimed at social welfare. At the same time, the article highlights the call for public bodies and agencies to overcome the “business as usual” and “silo-framed” institutional approach and establish fruitful collaborative and synergistic co-design procedures with inhabitants and local stakeholders.