Hermitage School Board on Tuesday approved adding 50 acres to a virtually tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone.

The Moroco Family Partnership owns two parcels on the east side of Broadway Avenue, and is asking that 25 acres of each parcel be added to the KOZ.

In a KOZ, the municipality, school district, county and state agree to abate many of the taxes they levy to attract development to parcels that have otherwise been undesirable or hard to develop.

Timothy J. Ruffo was the only board member to vote against the motion.

He said the strengths that local economic development officials cite for the property -- its size and proximity to Route 60 and Interstate 80 -- lead him to believe it should not be given extra marketing help.

"To me, this is some prime, marketable land," he said. "It seems to me that anytime anybody has some property that they can't sell right away, they'll come to us for a KOZ."

Board member Raymond Slovesko agreed the property is prime -- according to local definition. But there are prime parcels nearby in a KOZ, and developers will go for the tax-free parcels first.

The KOZ designation would make the Broadway parcels more competitive with others of their size, he said.

The board's action is meaningless if the Hermitage and Mercer County commissioners do not also approve it. Hermitage commissioners are expected to vote on the issue tonight.

The state must ultimately approve any submissions for KOZ expansion.

If approved, the parcels would be free of real estate taxes and a number of state taxes from Jan. 1, 2004, to Dec. 31, 2010.