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A serious discussion is long overdue on the possible sale of hundreds of acres Luzerne County government owns in Butler Township, county Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott said Monday.

“Why just let it sit there? It’s worth a lot of money, and the county would also receive tax revenue from new development,” McDermott said.

The topic is on the agenda for Tuesday’s virtual meeting of council’s Real Estate Committee, which she chairs. The committee focuses largely on selling unused county-owned property.

In all, the county owns 530 acres in the township because it operated the Kis-Lyn work camp for juvenile delinquents from 1912 to 1965.

However, 407 acres are available to sell because the Keystone Job Corps Center operates a federally funded, residential educational and vocation program on 123 acres. Prior commissioners had approved a 50-year lease extension with the federal government for Keystone in 2001.

A subdivision carving out the Keystone portion would be necessary before the county could execute a sale, officials said.

A prior township official had said the county’s 407 acres was largely flat and would be ideal for residential development.

Some county officials had argued the land should be kept green. Portions of the property are forested.

County officials have periodically discussed a public sale of the land for more than two decades but never acted.

The issue came up in 1995 because some Hazleton area officials encouraged the county to sell the land for development to boost the tax base, with one past Hazleton Area School Board member saying it was improper for the county to “land bank” and “keep that land from the tax rolls.” The parcel is located near state Route 309 and Interstates 80 and 81.

Township officials also later pitched a plan to use the site for a municipal golf course and recreational area, raising concerns about the impact of a large development. Prior county commissioners held off, saying they wanted to study the site’s potential.

The future of the land resurfaced in 2007, when the county faced a year-end shortfall stemming partly from a budget that counted on $4.3 million in county land sales that weren’t materializing. County officials publicly cited selling the Butler Township acreage not used by Keystone as an option.

Instead, county officials at the time obtained a cash advance on some 2008 revenue and delayed paying millions of dollars in bills as they awaited the receipt of more borrowed funds. They promised to explore the Butler Township land sale again in 2008, but the matter fell off the radar.

County officials had rented some of the land to farmers from the 1970s until recent years, but the county did not receive any proposals from farmers in its last public request for agricultural lease offers in 2019.

McDermott suggests seeking a request for proposals from surveyors to subdivide the property and continued evaluation of the site to determine its potential value.

She is compiling all available records on the county land for discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, including 2018 appraisals covering some but not all of the non-Keystone tracts. The appraisal values for three parcels were: 69 acres, $415,000; 42.1 acres, $360,000; and 35.4 acres, $92,000.

“I’m sure the land value went up since then, and that’s not all the parcels,” McDermott said.

Council members Matthew Vough and Chris Perry also serve on the committee, which makes recommendations to the full 11-member county council.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. Attendance instructions are posted under council’s public meetings online link at <a href="https://www.luzernecounty.org/1279/Public-Meetings-Online" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">luzernecounty.org</a>.

Luzerne County committee to discuss 407 acres that could be sold