With a healthy supply of real estate brokers in Los Gatos, the town shouldn’t have any trouble finding a broker to market four town-owned properties for sale or lease. Still, moving a couple of those parcels could prove a monumental challenge.

The town issued a formal request last week asking brokers to submit proposals to market the vacant Venue Teen Center, the closed Forbes Mill Museum, the vacant lot at Winchester Boulevard and Lark Avenue, and the vacant property at 20 Dittos Lane.

The town council has been discussing the properties in closed session for months, avoiding disclosure of price points. The RFP shows the Venue and Forbes Mill are for lease, and Winchester and Dittos are for sale.

The Dittos Lane property is about 1½ acres of land that raises the question: Who would buy it? Dittos is up for sale as is. “The town makes no warranty as to the future use of the property,” the RFP notes.

“I’d probably turn around and run,” Montalvo Realty broker Dennis Byron said. “They’re trying to unload a white elephant.”

Byron is a longtime Los Gatos resident familiar with the town’s development policies. “To a Realtor, Dittos means I’m going to face a lot of opposition,” he said. “You’re going to do a lot of work and probably can’t build anything because you’re stuck down in a hole and everybody’s afraid a development on Dittos will impact traffic.”

Dittos Lane is just off West Main Street and Maple Lane at the entrance to Los Gatos Creek Trail. When a developer proposed removing 55 trees to widen Maple Lane and install a retaining wall at the trailhead, residents strongly objected.

In 2010, the town council turned down a proposal to build 32 low-income homes on Dittos because nearby College Avenue residents complained. “They were three-story towering giants encroaching on our privacy,” resident Cameron Tulee recalled. “I predict it won’t sell. People will ask what happened before and they’ll realize how impossible it is to build there.”

Two houses and a garage that were on Dittos were demolished, and the land is now vacant, Tulee said.

Tulee and other residents asked a nature conservation nonprofit to consider buying Dittos and keeping it as open space, but the $3-million-plus price tag the town paid for Dittos is too steep.

The Venue, located behind Los Gatos High School, was built by residents and gifted to the town. Those residents supported a proposal for public access station KCAT-TV to move into the Venue, but that fell through. “We had hoped to build a digital arts and media center for the community, but we weren’t able to reach an agreement with the town,” KCAT general manager Melissa Toren said.

There’s been no controversy surrounding the vacant Winchester Boulevard and Forbes Mill properties.

The deadline for interested Realtors to submit proposals is Jan. 13. Proposals must include experience, marketing plans, commission expectations and references.

Visit the “What’s New” section at losgatosca.gov for more information.