Over 50 attendees discussed potential designs for a new multimodal trail system connecting College Hill, Metzgar Campus and the surrounding Easton areas in a Lafayette College-hosted community meeting on Wednesday evening.
The proposed trail — part of the college’s master plan — was announced after Lafayette received a $75,000 grant from Northampton County in 2024. When complete, the trail will connect Lafayette’s main campus to its athletics campus and LaFarm, as well as improve access to Easton retailers.
Oliver Kiley, a landscape architect and principal with developer SmithGroup, said the trail will be “multi-functional” in the Easton area.
“It may be a transportation corridor and a way for people to get from point A to point B, but for somebody else, it might be a really important part of a recreational loop that they’re doing, if they’re out running or walking or jogging or biking,” he said.
Kiley cited a survey that found that steep slopes have impacted recreation opportunities in the city. SmithGroup found that of Easton residents interested in biking, only 12% of them were “strong and fearless” and “enthused and confident” about biking in the city. Other groups, according to the survey cited, were “concerned” about Easton’s hills and roads when biking.
“If the route is too circuitous and it’s not direct enough, people might not be interested in using it,” Kiley said.
The college’s project manager, Lauren Daniels, said the project is currently gathering public input and data, and exploring possible routes the trail may take.
“We want to hear about how you use the trails today and how you would like to use the trails,” said Daniels, who led a group activity where dozens of Lafayette College students shared their opinions of what the trail could look like.
Attendees participated in a mapping exercise, marking key destinations, challenging areas and desired routes. Many of the attendees were senior civil engineering capstone students.
Max Dumbra ‘26, a civil engineering major attending the meeting as part of his capstone, said he currently uses his car for commutes between College Hill, Metzgar and the local Giant. He said a continuous trail would not change his transportation habits, but found it to be a safe and accessible option for recreation.
“I’d use it for leisure, running or biking, but it’s a little far to walk to get groceries,” he said. “If they can link everything together, I think it would make the area feel a lot more safe and accessible. It’s something people would appreciate even if they’re not using it to commute.”
Planning for the project will continue in three trail study meetings later this spring, according to Daniels.
Michael Hartranft • Jan 30, 2026 at 1:46 pm
If that’s the case, going from Easton to Forks Township, hopefully they’d take into consideration the ban that they have on E bikes on ALL trails in
forks township , a ban i feel is to extreme , plus they dont enforce it anyway, so whyy have the ban,, I am at close proximity to these trails, forks needs to change that ordinance sooner than later , they didn’t do their due diligence. They just stopped all E bikes on the trails, so if your a forks township resident, to use surrounding trails in Palmer , Bethlehem , Tatamy you need to either, ride in the street or load up your e-bike to get there .
Chuck Chapman • Jan 30, 2026 at 9:49 am
As a Forks resident would love to be able to bike between Forks and downtown Easton.