Texas' General Land Office plans to close the sale on almost 1,000 acres of prison land north of Lake Jackson this month.

The land then will be made available for public sale within six months. The 987.49 acres lie along Highway 288, west of Oyster Creek just south of the Brazoria County Airport.

Land office spokesman Jim Suydam said the sale would be either through a live auction on the land site or through a sealed-bid process. An auction or bid date has not been set, but it will be advertised on the Internet and in three newspapers four times 30 days before the sale, he said.

The sale is expected to open the northwest part of Lake Jackson near the prison for residential development, something city officials have advocated for years.

"It will free up land as we try to continue to develop the city," said City Manager Bill Yenne. "It will be very positive for the city all the way around."

Tom Fordyce, director of agribusiness, land and minerals for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the prison system had been looking to sell the land since 1997, when the Legislature directed the prison system to sell millions in land holdings.

"It directed Texas Department of Criminal Justice to sell $8.5 million worth of property that was deemed underutilized, so we attempted to identify property to reach that $8.5 million goal," Fordyce said. "That was really the start of all of our land sales."

Prison land at the Wayne Scott Unit near Lake Jackson and units near Sugar Land were deemed most valuable, he said, since both areas were running out of room for development.

Because the prison system would be losing agricultural land at both sites, the prison system started looking for land where it could consolidate those operations.

Last month, the land office announced the purchase of an 11,000-acre ranch near Bryan-College Station that will be used for prison agriculture operations. The Permanent School Fund, managed by the School Land Board, bought the Burleson County ranch and will lease the land to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 30 years.