You can have 'it is important to do X'; can you have 'it is urgent to do X'?

Dictionary definitions show that the two words, "urgent' and "imperative" are different in that a matter of time is made clear in the first only, but that can be left aside.

I tend to share your intuition in finding "imperative" more idiomatic than "urgent" and that would possibly result in my avoiding the latter but I have no inkling as to what the reason is. However, a little research tells me that we both are not deceived by our intuition. There is first this ngram which shows that the "natural", the "more" collocative term is "imperative". There is of course some degree of subjectiveness in that since "urgent to" is definitely in current use. Then, a verification of both words in OALD (oxford Avanced learner's Dictionary) provides the following details for "imperative", that is two well established constructions, whereas no such constructions are included for the entry "urgent".

• imperative (that…) It is absolutely imperative that we finish by next week.
  imperative (to do something) It is imperative to continue the treatment for at least two months.

The uneasiness must come from the fact that "urgent to" is so to speak still a construction in the making and that the reader's ears are not quite used to it yet. As to say that it is non standard English I think it might be to late or even that there never was a case for that, considering that ngram. From a quick look at the literature (Google Books) you see that this construction is used a lot albeit not nearly as much as "imperative to".

It does seem that urgent is used less often than imperative here, and the comments show that some people perceive it as less idiomatic. I don't myself perceive anything wrong with urgent to. Furthermore, while Google Ngrams shows that it is used less often, it is quickly gaining currency. I believe the reason for this is that urgent to means something different than imperative to; urgent to gives a sense that it is needed immediately, which imperative to does not.

I can't think of a synonymous phrase for urgent to which is used more commonly. You could use

it is imperative to immediately develop ...

or some similar phrase, but urgent has the advantage that it is a single word. I don't really like the use of pressing (also suggested by the OP) here. While it has the same sense of immediacy as urgent, it is used much less frequently (see Ngram), and it has the disadvantage of possibly leading to a garden-path misunderstanding (Who is pressing to develop ...?).