In the Feb. 5 issue of Carleton Today, Vice President and Treasurer Eric Runestad and Associate Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Linda Weingarten announced plans to close a segment of College Street to vehicular traffic. Currently, College Street runs from the Weitz Center for Creativity to the Sayles-Hill Campus Center, where it features a small parking area, a turnaround and a transportation stop. The planned construction would close College Street to cars, making the space only open to pedestrians and bicyclists from the intersection of  College Street and 1st Street (in front of Johnson House) to the circle in front of Sayles Hill Campus Center.

Weingarten said that a key goal of this project is to improve pedestrian safety on campus.

“There have been a series of studies that show that this area was a point of conflict between pedestrians and vehicles, and we know that this is not ideal on college campuses. We’re probably one of the last campuses to still have vehicular traffic through the heart of their campus, and it really is about safety,” Weingarten said.

She mentioned that Campus Security Services has noted a few pedestrian-vehicle collisions in this area of College Street, but she emphasized the higher number of potential accidents.

“What you don’t see is all the near misses. We don’t have a lot of data about that, but there are a lot of stories, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about that, but when you look back, there aren’t a lot of actual accidents that have happened,” Weingarten said. 

A key goal of the road closure is to improve pedestrian safety and reduce dangerous interactions between vehicles and people.

Kaya Shin-Sherman ’28 echoed this sentiment and explained, “As someone without a car who rarely needs to get picked up or dropped off, this decision works for me. I look forward to walking and riding my skateboard around the sidewalk.”

Weingarten said that plans and incremental projects towards this eventual closure have been ongoing over the past several years. Upgrades to accessible parking behind Leighton Hall, as well as the redesign of the path leading up behind the parking lot, have improved access to that area of campus. Additionally, construction in the last five years on the segment of Union Street that runs behind Davis, Burton and Severance Halls has improved access for delivery and maintenance vehicles. 

The portion of the road that creates a thoroughfare to 1st Street or 2nd Street, and ultimately into downtown Northfield, was then closed during Phase 2 of the Student Life & Housing Project, which included the construction of the Class of 1974 Center and several nearby townhouses, as well as the renovation of Dacie Moses House. The road was reopened this fall upon completion of the Phase 2 construction.

During the partial closure of Union Street, College Street experienced a significant increase in traffic, resulting in increased wear and tear. Now, College Street has issues with curbs and gutters as well as multiple large potholes. Rather than repaving and repairing these issues, the college has opted to convert the street into a large sidewalk much like those running through other parts of campus. The sidewalk will be mixed-use for pedestrians and bicycles and wide enough to accommodate emergency vehicles and maintenance vehicles. 

The long-term closure of College Street to vehicular traffic will result in the demolition of the current transit stop in front of Willis Hall, which is served by Northfield Lines and the Hiawathaland Transit Blue and Green Lines. It will also include the removal of the parking area between Scoville Hall and the Skinner Memorial Chapel, including several ADA accessible parking spaces. In terms of changes to parking spot numbers, Weingarten said, “We’re going to look at surrounding parking lots and see if we can find other spaces that we could reclaim or restripe a little differently so we come out fairly neutral.”

Current plans have the lot in front of Anderson Hall and James Hall expanding towards the former site of the Music and Drama Center, also known as the “medium-sized bald spot.” A new transit stop, bus pull-off, and vehicle turn-around will also be constructed on the site. Some parking spaces in the lot next to the Chapel will be converted into ADA-accessible spaces, and a smaller turn-off will be included in the construction of the new College Street sidewalk to allow for convenient drop-offs, although plans are still being finalized.

Some students raised concerns about how the expansion of this parking lot might affect the campus’s visual appeal. Olivia Bremer ’28 said, “I’m not interested in there being a large parking lot so visible to the center of campus,” and speculated whether it would be better to add additional spaces elsewhere.

Weingarten emphasized how these changes should improve campus accessibility. She explained that with the current setup, “Even someone trying to navigate campus from Sayles, you have to go over at least four curbs and multiple different levels of streets and sidewalks, and it’s not easy.” Past studies, including the 2020 Circulation Study and 2025 Facilities Plan, highlighted the need to improve accessibility around campus.

Another aim of the project is to increase seating space outside of  Sayles — which currently has a small raised patio directly next to the building — and to include additional benches and bike racks on the new path.

Some of the space reclaimed by the road removal will be used to add more green space to the center of campus on both sides of the new sidewalk. “The climate is changing, so we have to look at every plant that we put in and make sure it’s going to be resilient with our new normal, which could be anything from dry to wet, you just don’t know,” said Weingarten. 

They hope that by using a mix of native and drought-resistant plants, the new spaces will be climate-resilient. Weingarten also emphasized the need for biodiversity. She said that there were previously a large number of elm trees around Burton Hall, but all of these trees died between the 1960s and 1980s due to the spread of Dutch Elm Disease through the United States. Many of the elm trees  were replaced with ash trees, which are now vulnerable to the Emerald Ash Borer, an insect that has killed millions of ash trees in the United States. Weingarten noted that the trees that will have to be removed during this project, namely those on the median of the turnaround, are also ash trees, which may have eventually succumbed to the effects of this insect. 

While an exact timeline for the project is still undetermined  as Carleton begins the permitting process with the City of Northfield and looks to bid the project out to contractors, Weingarten hopes that construction will begin during the summer and be completed by the start of the 2026 fall term. She added that they are open to receiving community feedback, input and ideas to help make the new space best suit a variety of needs and interests.