Drawing up an action plan incorporating the principles of sustainable development was the call to local and regional authorities in the document entitled Agenda 21, adopted by the Heads of State gathered at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Brundtland Report published in 1987, Our Common Future, introduced this notion of sustainable development by defining it as a development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet..

Morin, Richard

Paulhiac-Scherrer, Florence

English

OpenEdition

 
Environnement Urbain / Urban Environment 
Volume 12 | 2017
La ville durable à l’épreuve des pratiques
The sustainable city facing the practice test:
introduction
Richard Morin and Florence Paulhiac-Scherrer
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URL: http://journals.openedition.org/eue/2130
ISSN: 1916-4645
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Institut national de Recherche scientifique Urbanisation Culture et Société
 
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Richard Morin and Florence Paulhiac-Scherrer, « The sustainable city facing the practice test:
introduction », Environnement Urbain / Urban Environment [Online], Volume 12 | 2017, Online since 02
March 2018, connection on 04 May 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/eue/2130 
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© Institut National de Recherche Scientifique Centre Urbanisation Culture et Société
The sustainable city facing the
practice test: introduction
Richard Morin and Florence Paulhiac-Scherrer
1 Drawing up an action plan incorporating the principles of sustainable development was
the call to local and regional authorities in the document entitled Agenda 21, adopted by
the Heads of State gathered at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The
Brundtland Report published in 1987,  Our Common Future,  introduced this notion of
sustainable development by defining it as a development that "meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.″
The  Rio  Summit  document  highlighted  the  three  main  components  of  sustainable
development: social, economic and environmental. A fourth cultural component will be
added later. In the wake of this Summit, sustainable development represents, over time, a
frame of reference for public policies in general and urban public action in particular
(Gariepy  and Gauthier,  2009).  In  this  particular  context,  making  the  sustainable  city
(Emelianoff, 2007) has gradually become an objective that has been integrated into the
policies,  plans  and  projects  of  urban  municipalities.  The  Summit  on  Sustainable
Development,  held  in  New  York  in  September  2015,  one  of  whose goals  refers  to
"Sustainable  Cities  and  Communities"  and  the  Federation  of  Canadian  Municipalities
Conference  on  Sustainable  Communities  in  Ottawa,  in  February  2016,  remind
municipalities of this new imperative (Gauthier, 2009). However, sustainable development
is still the subject of debate (Mancebo, 2008, Levy, 2010), particularly on the relationship
between economic development, which remains associated with growth, respect for the
environment and social equity; on the adequacy between the principles of sustainable
development  invoked  by  public  action  and  the  concrete  effects  of  the  measures
implemented; on reducing sustainable development to the environmental issue given,
among other things, global warming; on the various scales of sustainable development,
from global to local. Sustainable urban development (Da Cunha et al., 2005), to which the
sustainable city is associated, also raises specific issues such as planning, transportation,
housing and governance.
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Environnement Urbain / Urban Environment, Volume 12 | 2017
1
2 In  connection  with  these  debates  and  issues,  this  thematic  issue  focuses  on  the
implementation of the sustainable city. What are the plans, programs and projects that
aim to make the city sustainable? How is sustainable urban development conceived? How
are these various strategies implemented? To what extent do they contribute to achieving
the sustainable city? Five articles are gathered here around these questions. The first two
articles deal with Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects planned as part of spatial
and metropolitan  development  planning,  the  aim of  which  is  to  create  high-density
residential development poles around a railway station or metro station to tackle the
problem of urban sprawl and reduce automobile use. The third article questions the fact
that urban sprawl is seen as incompatible with sustainable urban development and is
interested, from a flow analysis, in the structuring of regional secondary poles that offer
services and local activities. The fourth article analyzes a municipal public action that
aims to achieve sustainable districts but, after focusing primarily on the environment,
tries to cover other dimensions. Finally, the fifth article also addresses the sustainable
city through the district, by examining, from planning documents, the evolution of the
residential social dimension in the development of a historic district in relation to its
built heritage and its touristic economic function.
3 Olivier Roy-Baillargeon's article looks back on a crucial period for metropolitan spatial
planning, that of the production and adoption of the first Metropolitan Planning and
Development Plan (MPDP), of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC), more than
15 years ago. At the heart of this Plan (2011), 155 potential TOD areas (or Transit-Oriented
Development) are identified to promote mixed and dense neighborhood development,
anchored  to  public  transport  nodes.  It  aims  at  guiding  the  future  growth  of  the
population and to combat the dispersion of urbanization. This model of sustainable urban
planning proposes to make a major shift in planning policies, particularly for suburban
municipalities. The proposed analysis opens the "black box" of the negotiations that took
place  between  the  different  levels  of  government  involved  in  the  production  and
definition of the MPDP content. Thus, the article underlines that the adoption of this new
paradigm  of  sustainable  development  by  the  MMC  is  not  free  from  internal
contradictions. Moreover, it emphasizes that the production of a TOD-based MDPD has
been the  occasion not  only  of  lively  negotiations  by  local  elected representatives  of
suburban municipalities,  but also of several local adaptations of the reference model.
Finally, this article presents an indirect interest that of allowing a retrospective glance to
grasp the path traveled, by the local elected officials in particular, as regards the recent
(re)appropriation  of  the  concept  and  its  principles.  This  (re)appropriation  can  be
particularly  grasped  through  the  representations  and  actions  of  the  elected
representatives in the planning and implementation of the TODs on their territory, as the
following article points out.
4 The  article  by  Maude  Cournoyer-Gendron  proposes  a  (re)contextualization  of  the
Montreal  model  of  the  TOD,  in  a  diachronic  and  political  perspective.  Faced  with  a
relatively malleable and transnational urban planning model, the author wonders about
its political trajectory, in the Montreal context, since the adoption of the MDPD in 2011. A
quick genealogy of the concept coined by P.  Calthorpe and its international diffusion
highlights  local  adaptation  processes  of  the  original  principles  of  the  TOD  or  the
difficulties faced by municipalities to implement them and achieve the expected results,
especially in terms of sustainability. The local contexts in which these projects take place
play a major role in the operationalization of the TODs. As such, the author recalls that
The sustainable city facing the practice test: introduction
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after the adoption of the MDPD, an original  process of  support for municipalities,  to
ensure their implementation, was coordinated by the MMC, that of "innovative projects."
But  the  heart  of  the  article  concerns  the  analysis  of the discourse of elected
officials (10 elected officials interviewed) about these projects. If the concept of TOD is
not defined in detail in the MDPD, elected representatives take it as an opportunity for
territorial  development.  They  propose  diversified  development  concepts,  which
sometimes join the original model.  However,  local  issues strongly color the proposed
content and objectives. And implementation sometimes strains the stated principles and
objectives.  The local  constraints  or  difficulties  encountered are  numerous.  But  these
projects are also at the heart of multi-level governance at work in the Greater Montreal
area. Indeed, they offer an opportunity for elected municipal officials to strengthen their
position  in  relations  and  negotiations  with  other  levels  of  public  decision-making
(regional or national) as well as vis-à-vis private developers.
5 In the following article, Sonia Chardonnel, Magali Talandier, Kamila Tabaka and Isabelle
André-Poyaud argue that  sustainable  urban development  does  not  rhyme exclusively
with  urban  density  and  that  a  form  of  urban  sprawl  can  be  compatible  with  the
sustainable development of metropolitan spaces. By taking the urban area of  Grenoble as
a field of study, they are interested in urban centralities, not in terms of density and
concentration  of  people,  jobs  or  higher  services,  but  in  terms  of  the  flows  of  daily
mobility that are not limited to home-work trajectories.  Their analysis of these flows
reveals, on the one hand, that most of the mobility is carried out in the proximity within
each sector of the Grenoble region and, on the other hand, that these mobilities structure
various types of poles according to the motive for traveling: work, purchase, leisure. For
the work motive, it is the city-center which, without surprise, prevails; for the leisure
motive, three regional centers stand out;  and for the purchase motive, displacements
generate multiple poles. Thus, secondary poles are created, corresponding to peripheral
municipalities  in  low  density  areas,  which  are  complementary  to  other  poles.  This
structuring of the peripheral areas in intermediate centralities thus makes it possible to
avoid a territorial fragmentation between distant dormitory spaces and a central city
which  gathers  all  the  functions.  The  development  of  these  intermediate  centralities
would thus be favored in order to offer resources and activities closer to the inhabitants,
to favor the modal shift in view of shorter trips and to reduce congestion in the denser
central  areas.  For  the  authors,  the  articulation  between  these  various  centralities
contributes to sustainable regional development.
6 The article by Richard Morin, Anne Latendresse and Nicolas Lozier takes us from the
regional  to  the  local  level  as  it  deals  with  municipal  programs  aimed  at  creating
sustainable neighborhoods. The authors first present sustainable development as a fuzzy
notion that constitutes a dominant frame of reference, especially as regards to public
action.  This  frame  of  reference  rests  on  three  main  pillars,  social,  economic  and
environmental, which will be complemented by the cultural one. In the case of Montreal,
the authors point out that the city's first two strategic plans for sustainable development
refer to these three pillars,  as does the Districts 21 flagship program, which aims at
creating sustainable districts.  However,  the analysis of the projects supported by this
program reveals that the environmental dimension of sustainable development clearly
predominates.  The global frame of reference has thus been reduced, in practice,  to a
sectoral one corresponding to the municipal environment department in charge of this
program.  Following  an  administrative  reorganization,  the  City's  third  sustainable
The sustainable city facing the practice test: introduction
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development plan puts forward a new program, called Integrated District,  under the
responsibility of an administrative unit within a central and cross-sectoral department.
This experimental program aims at covering other aspects of sustainable development as
well as the environmental one, by integrating five municipal programs that concern the
district scale. However, although the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of
sustainable development are among the five integrated programs, the authors note the
absence of an economic program. In addition, although the Integrated District program is
related to a cross-sectoral service, the five programs to integrate remain each under the
control of a sectoral service, which limits their integration.
7 Finally,  Priscilla  Ananian's  article  also  focuses  on  the  district  scale  in  the  Montreal
context.  The author addresses the issue of the sustainable city by dealing with three
functions, residential, heritage and tourism of the old central districts, which correspond
to  the  social,  cultural,  environmental  and  economic  dimensions  of  sustainable
development. The author is particularly interested in the deployment of the residential
function in these districts. Firstly, she reviews the evolution of the conception of this
function in these districts. To this end, she evokes various phenomena such as "the return
to  the  city"  and  "the  city  of  proximity",  residential  construction  and  densification
supported by sustainable urban development frame of reference and the development of
urban tourism. The latter relies on the authenticity of inhabited areas while putting them
at risk of  being distorted.  Secondly,  the author analyzes twenty planning documents
concerning Old Montreal and the districts nearby produced since the 1960s. This analysis
reveals a variety of plans and public,  private and associative actors that interact;  the
recognition  of  the  district's  heritage,  residential  and  commercial  functions  that  are
attractive to the tourism function, but whose overall cohabitation is an important issue;
the residential densification, which is reaching its limits in Old Montreal and overflowing
into the districts nearby; and the vision of a complete multifunctional neighbourhood
that  is  not  fully  realized.  The  author  concludes  the  article  by  mentioning  the
instrumentalization  of  the  residential  function  for  showcase  purposes  of  the
international  city  and  tourist  promotion,  as  well  as  the  lack  of  coherence  of  the
interventions and the weakness of the means of action of the public authorities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DA CUNHA, A., P. KNOEPFEL, J.-P. LERESCHE et S. NAHRATH (2005). Enjeux du développement urbain
durable : transformations urbaines, gestion des ressources et gouvernance. Lausanne, Presses
polytechniques et universitaires romandes, 471 p.
EMELIANOFF, C. (2207). « La ville durable : l’hypothèse d’un tournant urbanistique en Europe », 
L’information géographique, vol. 71, no 3, p.48-65
GARIEPY, M. et M. GAUTHIER (2009). « Le débat public en urbanisme à Montréal : un instrument
de développement urbain durable », Canadian Journal of Urban Research, supplément Canadian
Planning and Policy, vol. 18, no 1, p. 48-73.
The sustainable city facing the practice test: introduction
Environnement Urbain / Urban Environment, Volume 12 | 2017
4
GAUTHIER, M.(2009) Urbanisme et développement durable. Liminaire. Environnement urbain / 
Urban Environment No. 3: p. II à V
LÉVY, J. (2010). « Le développement urbain durable entre consensus et controverses », 
L’information géographique, no 3, vol. 74, p. 38-50.
MANCEBO, F. (2008). Le développement durable, Paris, Armand Collin, 125 p.
AUTHORS
RICHARD MORIN
Richard Morin is a professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Tourism of the
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) since 1980. During his career, he has led diverse
researches concerning urban revitalization, local development, collective action,
community housing, social cohabitation and sustainable development.
FLORENCE PAULHIAC-SCHERRER
Florence Paulhiac-Scherrer has been an associate professor in the Department of Urban
Studies at the School of Management (École des Sciences de la Gestion) of the Université
du Québec à Montreal (UQAM) since 2011. She previously held the position of associate
professor at the School of urban planning in Grenoble. Her research deals with the urban
policies and, more specifically, focuses on urban-transport planning coordination
processes and  instruments. She heads the Research Chair ‘’Innovations and Integrated
Transport – Planning Strategies’’ (In.SITU), attached to the School of Management (ESG –
UQAM).
The sustainable city facing the practice test: introduction
Environnement Urbain / Urban Environment, Volume 12 | 2017
5


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