Station 2 - Collins
Station 2 - Collins
Collins Road First Coast Flyer station is located at the intersection of Blanding Boulevard and Collins Road. The infrastructure for the route adds a queue bypass on the far side of the intersection for both the northbound and southbound locations and traffic signal priority at the intersection.This station is located north of the Argyle Forest community which overlaps the Clay and Duval County lines. The pattern of development is consistent with low to medium density suburban development pattern. It is in close proximity Argyle Village Shopping Center – a regional big box shopping center with 305,000 square feet of retail space.
However proceeding north to the Collins Road First Coast Flyer station, the development along this portion of Blanding Boulevard is mainly comprised of obsolete and deteriorating structures. On the east side of Blanding Boulevard commercial uses define the character of the corridor with big box stores, car lots and a mobile home park that abut a fairly significant wetland to the east. Sidewalks and lacking and the long blocks encourage crossing the street between signalized intersection. The land use designation is predominately commercial with some industrial and public/institutional.
Development on the west side is typical of a deteriorating suburban strip development with a large shopping center with an overabundance of parking that could easily be redeveloped to a “new” traditional town center style development by utilizing the parking lot for infill development. Located on the corners are a standalone CVS chain store and a gas station.
A station area plan can incorporate complete streets concepts to increase pedestrian safety and the first and last mile connections to the stations. The residential development accessed from Collins on the west side of Blanding Boulevard within one mile from the stations is a mix of single family subdivisions and multi-family complexes.