Douglas County and Lawrence officials are considering buying the 467-acre Farmland fertilizer plant east of Lawrence, Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones said Friday.

“We need to decide if the city and county need to intervene,” Jones said. “Our biggest fear is the old plant could sit there for years and years and not generate any taxes for the community.”

City and county commissioners will meet in a closed-door executive session Wednesday morning to begin discussions about the plant, idled since May 2001.

Economic development officials and green-space advocates welcomed the news, saying the Farmland property could be used for both purposes.

“The Farmland property could represent a good opportunity for the community,” said Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “It’s right on K-10, next to East Hills Industrial Park, and it could provide some industrial land that we’re needing.”

Carey Maynard-Moody, of the Alliance for the Conservation of Open Space, agreed. She noted the property contained a lot of buffer space between the plant and its neighbors.

“This is just pristine the way it is,” she said. “They wouldn’t need to put much money into making that open space open space, it seems.”

Officials have said it’s unlikely any private business will take over the property. Koch Industries passed on the plant last month when it purchased several Farmland fertilizer plants elsewhere for $270 million.

“I think it would be our preference for the private sector to acquire this property and put it back to work,” Jones said. “I don’t know if it’s realistic to expect that to happen.”

In the plant’s nearly 50 years of operation, millions of gallons of ammonia, nitrate and various forms of acid have pumped through its pipes, perhaps producing a costly environmental mess.

“That site’s pretty polluted,” said Charles Benjamin, attorney for the Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club. “Frankly, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

¢ 6News video: City to discuss Farmland purchase¢ Join the discussion¢ Koch says no on idled plant (2-19-03)¢6News video: Farmland plant not part of sale¢Farmland hopes to complete sale by March (12-08-02)

There could be relief for that problem, however. The federal government has made $200 million available to developers who clean up and reuse so-called “brownfield” industrial sites.

“It seems like a brownfield project is a possibility and likelihood there,” Jones said.

And that financial help could come in handy with a second obstacle to a government purchase: money. It’s no secret that both the city and county are struggling through the weak economy. The Douglas County Appraiser has listed the various parcels that make up the Farmland site as having a total value of more than $2 million.

Can the community afford the cost?

“We won’t know that until we know what kind of numbers we’re looking at,” Jones said. “Sometimes you create the opportunities and sometimes the opportunities create the timing.”

“I think the shortage of available (industrial) sites in Douglas County is an important need that we have,” Parman said. “To develop industrial parks takes time, so it might be perfect to study this during a slow economy. When the economy rebounds, we could have developable sites ready to go.”

Jones said all obstacles would be considered carefully.

“We’re bringing in some consultants who have some real experience in brownfields to kind of frame the process and decisions we’re going to have to make,” he said. “It’s a big, expensive long-term project, and we want to make sure we go into it with a strategy and our eyes wide open.”

The joint session begins at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets.