Too small for a restaurant: Historical Society members would like to see markets at Bella Vista Farm.
THE secretary of the Hills District Historical Society has dismissed the idea of a historic centre or restaurant at Bella Vista Farm.
"I'm not holding my breath," Pam Wilson said.
She said a museum was included in a plan of management prepared for The Hills Council in 1997.
"In that there was also a commercial area outside the heritage precinct," she said.
A history centre, restaurant and riding school were among several possible future uses of Bella Vista Farm listed in a draft Conservation Management Plan which was approved by The Hills Council at its last meeting.
"The rooms in the homestead are too small for a restaurant [and] riding would wreck up the grounds," Ms Wilson said.
According to the new management plan, rezoning of the 18.5 hectare site is necessary for the property to become "financially independent" from its owner, The Hills Council.
"I agree these places have to be used or otherwise they fall apart but we don't want a museum up there now because we have our own," Ms Wilson said with reference to the Hills District Historical Society's permanent museum at Balcombe Heights, for which they received The Hills Council's 2013 Community Project of the Year Award.
"We'd like to see farm markets and concerts there [and] have left furniture from the original Castle Hill Primary in their shed for them to use."
The council is waiting to see if the Department of Planning and Recreation will approve its proposal to rezone the site from public recreation to business centre.
"We are supposed to be the Garden Shire," Peter Wicks commented on our Facebook page.
■ How would you make money from the farm?