Big changes are in the works for Waterloo’s Northdale area – and one councillor is suggesting the biggest change yet.

Coun. Mark Whaley says he’d like to see vehicles taken off Hickory Street, which he describes as the “spine” of the neighbourhood.

“It should be a reflection of the users in the neighbourhood, and they’re all walkers, they’re all bicyclists, they’re all transit users,” he said.

“Car is no longer king.”

Changing demographics in Northdale in recent years have led to tensions between the neighbourhood’s longtime residents and its rapidly increasing student population.

A master plan for the area has been approved, aiming to turn the neighbourhood into a bustling mixed-use corridor, but details of its implementation remain up in the air.

Monday night, councillors approved more than $380,000 in funding for design work related to that implementation.

Whaley envisions Hickory as one of the brightest spots of the neighbourhood – especially if vehicular traffic is barred.

“It’s not going to be a neighbourhood divided by pavement,” he said.

Northdale resident Avie Seegobin says he likes the idea of removing traffic from Hickory, and can see a lot of students feeling the same way.

“All the students want to walk on the street, because it’s plowed … as opposed to the sidewalks,” he said.

Cameron Thompson, a Laurier geography student who lives on Hickory, wasn’t as optimistic.

“It would mean that I’d have to be parking my car a pretty far distance away from where I live,” he said.

“I wouldn’t like that.”

Whether Hickory should become a car-free zone and other specific design details are expected to be debated later this year.