The history of the county-owned Packerton Yards is lengthy.

The county commissioners purchased the property from Joseph and Elizabeth Zaprazny on Feb. 25, 2005 for $352,576.25.At that time, commissioners were William O'Gurek, Wayne Nothstein and then Commissioner Charles Getz.Nothstein cast the sole "no" vote for the purchase.Over the course of the next eight years, the county spent a total of $1,540,995.55 on the property.Expenses included land appraisals, engineering fees, environmental studies, well drilling, building demolition, easements, consultant services, legal services and land development.According to an expenditure report obtained from Carbon County, of that $1.5 million, the county received a total of $621,700 in reimbursements from state and federal grants to help offset the costs.They also secured nearly $5 million in other state and federal grants for the industrialization of the land, which were earmarked for the development of the site once all roadblocks were cleared.Nearly all of the $5 million had to be returned because it could not be transferred to other uses within the county.The project hit a number of snags along the way, including four court hearings in 2006-2007, when Lancaster business owners April Koppenhaver and Bruce Clark, as well as county resident Thomas Zimmerman IV, filed injunctions to stop the project because they believed the remaining building should not be torn down.Following the hearings, O'Gurek and Getz voted to file a petition against Zimmerman to recoup approximately $8,100 that the county was forced to spend on counsel fees, but that money was never paid and the lien against Zimmerman lost its priority in 2012.A request to extend the Keystone Opportunity Zone status of the property was rejected by Lehighton Borough Council in 2009.In 2012, Mahoning Township denied the project because officials believed it should include sidewalks from Route 209 into the development; leading to the commissioners appealing thedecision in CarbonCounty Court of Common Pleas.Judge Joseph Matika denied Carbon's appeal. The commissioners then appealed the decision to Commonwealth Court, where in November, it was again denied.