This is a new sight in Whittier. The old juvenile detention facility,located at Philadelphia Street and Whittier Boulevard, has finally been listed as state surplus property.

The people of Whittier and the San Gabriel Valley ain’t NIMBYs.

They’ve had to put up with the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility for 113 years. Now it is surplus property. How much will the state get for it?

It won’t be the $107 million it sold for in 2005, when at one minute to midnight, the state negated the sale and said it wanted to keep the old place for a possible future jail. Later, under pressure from the courts, the state and city were being arm-twisted into making it into a prison hospital. Then a “re-entry” prison facility.

All options are off the table now.

The state has listed it for sale. The 73 acre-parcel is the biggest contiguous urban parcel in Los Angeles County, says Whittier Councilman Owen Newcomer. The city will appraise it and help the state find a buyer, said state Sen. Ron Calderon, R-Montebello, who put up the sign Wednesday.

Future uses include: shopping mall, possibly a Costco, homes and maybe office use. City officials said it will be five years before anything is built. Until then, residents can sleep a little sounder knowing it won’t be a prison again or a hospital for prisoners.