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FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds, site photograph
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Ravine / Naturalized ParkType:Underperforming / Leftover Space (enclosure-leaning)Forest Hill North

FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds

Ravine / Naturalized Park, below average overall (score 30, rank ~28th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.

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Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026

Data updated

FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds scores 29.5 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best forescape into nature

Area · 0.40 ha

What's here

Facilities
Library

Getting around

Paths

34 m of mapped path. Too little surface tagging to say how much is paved.

1 flight of steps on the mapped network.

Seating

No seating mapped in OpenStreetMap.

Arrival

Parking inside the park. None of the 9 nearby lots records whether it has accessible spaces.

Path, seating and parking data comes from OpenStreetMap and reflects what volunteers have mapped, not a survey. Absence here means nobody has recorded it. This section does not assess wheelchair access: the relevant OpenStreetMap tag is present on well under 1% of Toronto paths.

Vitality Score
30/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 68%

Data Confidence
29.5 / 100

Data confidence: moderate

Citywide
27th
of all 3,753 parks
Among Ravine / Naturalized Park
27th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
33
median in small Ravine / Naturalized Park ravine (n=213)
Performance gap
-4
raw − expected · context confidence high
typical

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map.

Grounds of a City building, not a designated park. It is left out of park rankings.

Near the park

  • Image of artwork: Forest Hill War Memorial

    1Forest Hill War Memorial

    Page and Steele Architects, 1980

    Sculpture · masonry

    Photo: City of Toronto. Source: City of Toronto Public Art

Numbers match the pins on the map. Works near the park are within 30 m of its edge.

Explain this score

Where did the 30 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON
What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score
Edge Activation0 · p62
-12.5
Amenity Diversity12 · p64
-7.6
Border Vacuum Risk100 (risk)
-5.0
Enclosure / Eyes on Park96 · p99
+4.6
Connectivity62 · p80
+2.5
Natural Comfort34 · p19
-2.4

Sum of contributions = the headline score. A negative bar means that dimension dragged the park below the city-wide neutral baseline.

Why this park works

FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds works because its enclosure score (96) is one of the city's strongest and its connectivity (62) is also top quartile (44 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).

What limits this park

FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds is held back by natural comfort (34, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high enclosure (96, top decile).

Jacobs reading

FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

  • Connectivity (62) significantly outpaces natural comfort (34): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
  • The park is enclosed by buildings (96) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0): frame without animation.
  • High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (100): much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.

Typology classification

confidence 75%
Ravine / Naturalized Parkalso reads as Urban Plaza

Classified as Ravine / Naturalized Park: 0% ravine overlap, 0% canopy. Secondary read: Urban Plaza (4029 m², paved (0% canopy), 24.2 buildings/100 m).

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
0.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 6 active uses (transit_stop, community) and 13 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, highway, rail). Active edges keep "eyes on the park" through the day; parking lots, blank institutional walls, rail and highway frontages drain street life.

Source: OpenStreetMap: cafes, restaurants, shops, schools, community centres, transit, parking, highways, rail. All data sources.

Connectivity

20% weightmeasured 85%
62.3 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 0 mapped paths/walkways and 13 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 4 street intersections within 100 m; 2 subway or GO stations, 2 streetcar or LRT stops, 10 bus stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~273 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m6
Intersections within 100 m4
Paths/walkways (50 m)0
Sidewalk segments (50 m)13
Transit stops (400 m)14 (2 subway/GO, 2 streetcar/LRT, 10 bus)
Estimated entrances4
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter2.20
Park perimeter273 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops. All data sources.

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
12.1 / 100

1 distinct amenity types in the park (library). Diversity drives the score, so a park with many distinct activity types can outrank a larger park that repeats the same use. 1 public artwork near the park adds a bonus for the number of works.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags. All data sources.

Natural Comfort

15% weightpartial 45%
33.8 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~2.1% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~1291 m; 3 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (3.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.0%
Canopy area0.00 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)1,291 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon3
Tree density3.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0
Sample points used28

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory. All data sources.

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
95.5 / 100

66 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (44 mid-rise, 22 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 14.9 m (~5 floors); 24.2 buildings per 100 m of 273 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3 to 7 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 44 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m66
Buildings within 50 m66
Avg edge height14.9 m (~5 floors)
Tallest edge building28.3 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)44
Low-rise (< 3 floors)22
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density24.20 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge67%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter273 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights). All data sources.

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
100.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot, parking_lot, Eglinton Avenue West, Eglinton Avenue West, parking_lot, Line 5 Eglinton, Eglinton Avenue West. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" that suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.

Source: OpenStreetMap: highways, rail, parking. All data sources.

Equity Context

contextinferred 15%
50.0 / 100

Equity Context requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence. Read with caution.

Source: Not loaded yet: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles. All data sources.

Amenities (1 types · 1 records)

  • library

Nearby active-edge features (32)

  • transit stop: Vesta Drive0 m
  • community: Toronto Public Library - Forest Hill0 m
  • parking lot0 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West10 m
  • transit stop: Gardiner Road19 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West24 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West38 m
  • rail: Line 5 Eglinton41 m
  • parking lot43 m
  • parking lot43 m
  • rail: Line 5 Eglinton51 m
  • parking lot60 m
  • transit stop: Spadina Rd at Eglinton Ave W67 m
  • transit stop: Spadina Road72 m
  • parking lot72 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West81 m
  • transit stop: Spadina Rd at Eglinton Ave W86 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West86 m
  • parking lot93 m
  • parking lot100 m
  • parking lot120 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West121 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West152 m
  • transit stop: Chaplin153 m
  • parking lot157 m
  • highway: Eglinton Avenue West166 m
  • transit stop: Old Forest Hill Road East Side166 m
  • transit stop: Eglinton Avenue West168 m
  • transit stop: Old Forest Hill Road176 m
  • transit stop: Chaplin191 m
  • transit stop193 m
  • transit stop: Chaplin195 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureFOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds
Edge activation, connectivity, amenity diversity, natural comfort, and enclosure, each 0 to 100.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    28th
  • Edge activation
    62th
  • Connectivity
    80th
  • Amenity diversity
    64th
  • Natural comfort
    19th
  • Enclosure
    99th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

Human activity signals: not available

No activity signals have landed for this park yet. The model has scored its physical form but it can’t yet say how often it’s programmed, photographed, or walked through. See /data-ethics for what we will and will not collect.

Does this score feel accurate?

Your read of FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds matters. We’re testing whether the model lines up with how people actually use the park. Submissions are stored locally; no account needed.

Tell us how this park feels

We measure structure (canopy, edges, connectivity). You measure feeling. Both matter, and disagreement is itself useful civic data.

Rate this park on as many dimensions as you have an opinion about. 1 = not at all, 5 = strongly. Skip the ones you don't feel sure about. Aggregated only, no comments stored at the row level.

feels socially active
feels comfortable
feels safe
feels connected
feels welcoming
feels ecological / natural
feels good for lingering
feels family-friendly
feels culturally important
70%

What would improve this park?

Generated from the weakest measured dimensions: a starting point, not a prescription.

  • Activate the edges: encourage cafés, retail or community uses on the streets that face the park; replace blank or parking-lot edges where possible.
  • Diversify what people can do in the park (playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden): even small additions raise this score.
  • Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.
  • Mitigate border vacuums (highways, rail, parking) with active programming on the still-permeable edges and treat the hostile edge as a design challenge.

Data sources

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Green Spaces
    Polygon boundaries, official names, land classes. Boundaries are reconciled against OpenStreetMap (ODbL) for new and updated parks.
  • Parks & Recreation Facilities
    Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
  • Toronto Pedestrian Network
    Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
  • Toronto Centreline V2
    Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
  • Toronto 3D Massing
    Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
  • Toronto Treed Area
    Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
  • Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
    Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
  • Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
    Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
  • Toronto Street Tree Inventory
    Tree count + density inside park polygons.
  • OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
    Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.