The proposed location for the Osceola Parkway Station is across the CSX tracks from a Wal*Mart Shopping Center, but is vacant land with trees, brush, wild flowers and even wild blackberries. This station location reminds us of how quickly the Greater Orlando metropolis is eating up the land around it and producing urban sprawl. This station will be part of Phase II opening in 2013.
In addition to the Wal*Mart center to the east, there are retail stores on the south side of Osceola Parkway, with residential south of that. There are additional developments in every direction around the station location. The area has been growing rapidly, but there are still lots of open spaces between developed areas. Most of the development consists of large tracts of single family homes with associated daily needs commercial. The automobile is the only viable means of transportation. The result of this is a network of multilane highways that are overtaxed the moment they are completed.
This area is a good example of how urban sprawl can use up tremendous amounts of land while not providing good quality of life. Because of the distance between the population centers alternative means of transportation are not viable. An additional aerial view from 10 km has been provided to show what this sprawl development looks like.
Hopefully the advent of Commuter Rail will provide more focus for future development. Thus infill areas could be used for higher density housing close in to the rail station, and bus or light rail feeder routes established to population centers further away.
Osceola Parkway Station will be an interesting case study in how sprawl might be arrested and development shift to more effective transit oriented development.