North Central College Parking Pavilion

Project Goals

By constructing a parking pavilion on the south end of campus, the College aims to:

• Increase the College’s overall on-campus parking capacity
• Improve parking safety and convenience for students, faculty, staff, and visitors
• Increase on-campus parking capacity and efficiency for large campus events
• Address on-street parking concerns within the neighborhood

Project Updates

For ongoing project updates, including the construction schedule and site logistics, please visit our partner's web page.

Construction Timeline

Site preparation will begin in May/June 2023; significant construction will occur July – December; and the College anticipates opening the parking pavilion for vehicular use in January 2024.

Traffic and Parking Analysis

The College contracted with Kenig, Lindgren, O’Hara, Aboona, Inc. (KLOA) to conduct further traffic and parking analysis of its campus and the surrounding area, and to evaluate the impact of a parking pavilion in the selected location. The KLOA data collection and findings are outlined below.

Data Collection

• The campus wide study was conducted in the area bounded by North Avenue to the north, Sleight Street to the east, Prairie Avenue to the south, and Ellsworth Street to the west
• Data collection and counts, including on-street and off-street parking supply and demand surveys, were conducted during four time periods:
  • A typical spring weekday
  • A typical fall weekday
  • A Friday night special event (2022 Crosstown Classic high school football game)
  • A Saturday special event (2022 North Central College Homecoming)
• 24 total hours of traffic and pedestrian data collection was conducted per each studied location
• 61 total hours of parking data collection was conducted per each study’s location

Key Findings

• The off-street parking locations for commuter/staff/visitor parking locations are 90 percent occupied at peak, warranting additional campus parking capacity
• The proposed pavilion will increase the available off-street parking locations for commuter/staff/visitor parking south of Chicago Avenue
• The proposed pavilion will reduce the utilization of on-street parking on a typical day and during events
• The volume of traffic generated by the full utilization of the pavilion on a typical weekday will have a limited impact on the operations of the area roadway network.

Parking Pavilion Benefits

• Located in close proximity to most of the College’s residence halls
• Minimizes the number of vehicles traversing the Brainard Street midblock crosswalk south of Highland Avenue
• Due to the all-way stop sign control at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Brainard Street, pedestrian and vehicle conflicts will be regulated
• Increases available off-street parking locations for commuter/staff/visitor parking south of Chicago Avenue
• Reduces the utilization of on-street parking on a typical day and during events

The volume of traffic generated by the full utilization of the pavilion on a typical weekday will have a limited impact on the operations of the area roadway network.

Animation

This is a computer-generated animated view of the parking pavilion as it will appear by January 2024.