Lisa Van de Ven
National Post
25 May 2002
National Post

(c) National Post 2002. All Rights Reserved.

The foresight of Forest Hill's forefathers is evident in the community today, with its large lots, spectacular homes and mature trees punctuating the streetscape.

Formerly the Village of Forest Hill, it once limited homes to single-family dwellings, architecturally designed for the approval of a board of community members. Each homeowner was required to plant a tree in their front yard.

Forest Hill is now part of the City of Toronto, but the strict restrictions of yesteryear have created one of today's most affluent areas. Real estate is among the priciest in the city, neighbours among Toronto's who's who. There's no doubt Forest Hill is the place to be, if only by virtue of how difficult it is to gain entry and who is already there.

"It's a prestigious place to live. It's a neighbourhood that's instantly recognizable because of the name. The area has a long history," says Sherri Platt, editor of the Village Post, the community's local newspaper. "Obviously, an affluent segment of the population -- of the city -- lives there. But it has a combination of a lot of young families and a lot of older families. It's a great location. A great place to raise children, with great schools, both public and private."

Located in Toronto's midtown, Forest Hill is close enough to downtown for an evening's jaunt to the theatre, yet near enough to the Allen Road to get away quickly for a weekend's sojourn at the cottage. For daily errands, though, there is the Forest Hill Village, the area's commercial heart at Spadina and Lonsdale roads.

"Forest Hill Village is great, and I think it's a very big part of the neighbourhood," says Susan Ainley, a Forest Hill resident since 1989 and co-president of the local North Hill District Home Owners' Association. "It's a real neighbourhood place."

As in a European village, Ms. Ainley says, the shops and services of the Village make up the heart of Forest Hill. Here, locals gather for a coffee, pick up odds and ends or visit for a dinner out -- certain to run into someone they know while they're there. "Everyone knows each other," says Ross Savatti, who has had a close view of the neighbourhood for the past 14 years as owner of Primi Ristorante on Spadina. "People have been living in the Village for years, I mean generations. It's a very tight-knit community."

Community members tend to know each other, agrees Ms. Ainley, especially those involved in the homeowners' association or with children in the local schools. Many of the locals have lived here for years, or have been raised in the area only to come back and raise their children here. "It's stable. People stay there forever," says St. Paul's councillor Michael Walker, who was raised in the community himself.

It's also an involved community, Mr. Walker says. Parents with school-aged children are apt to get involved at the local schools -- which have perhaps benefited from the attention, receiving consistently high ratings on province-wide testing. Others speak up as the neighbourhood faces issues that affect them, says Ms. Ainley. "I think it's pretty involved," she says. "Considering how remarkably busy some of the people here must be, they're very involved."

Traffic continues to be a hot issue in the residential community. With the Allen ending at Eglinton, cars cut through the local streets as commuters travel toward their southern destinations. "This particular residential neighbourhood is invaded by commuter traffic," says Ms. Ainley.

Large homes throughout the residential area, as well as highrise development on its fringe, are also a concern for local residents. Recent plans by Great Gulf Homes to add a condominium development to the north side of St. Clair Avenue were thwarted at the Ontario Municipal Board after community members took action.

However, neighbours tearing down smaller homes -- sometimes combining two properties -- to build huge houses out of place in the neighbourhood, have been harder to stop. "Some of the new houses cover a lot more property than the older ones do," Ms. Ainley says.

Preserving the character of the community is really at the heart of many of the neighbourhood's issues, Ms. Platt says. "The location and the character of the neighbourhood really do stand out in the city," she says.

Preserving that character means trying to maintain the neighbourhood's monuments, which locals hold dear. The recent announcement by Famous Players to close the historical Eglinton Theatre, built in 1936, has been widely protested in the community. Many neighbours remember the theatre from when they were growing up and don't want to see it disappear, says Mr. Walker. Ms. Platt agrees. "People really did get behind the Eglinton Theatre and its closing. You can see petitions in local stores; you can see it all over. People are active and pretty vocal about that," she says.

Activism such as this has resulted in a neighbourhood that has remained largely unchanged over the years. The upscale neighbourhood has attracted and been home to some of the country's most well known people -- Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live fame, went to high school here, as did author David Gilmour. Nathan Phillips, a former mayor, once lived there, and John Turner, a former Prime Minister, still does.

With the exception of the real estate prices -- which have increased rapidly in the neighbourhood in the past decades -- the community has not changed a great deal since Mr. Walker grew up there. At least not at its heart.

"It's changed, but you can still recognize it. The streets are the same, it's still well-to-do," he says. "I think it's grown and prospered and flourished, and it's even more dynamic than when I grew up there."

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