§ 3207. Preparation and approval of urban renewal projects and urban renewal plans
(a) A municipality shall not approve an urban renewal project for an urban renewal area
unless the governing body has, by resolution, determined such area to be a slum area
or a blighted area or a combination thereof and designated such area as appropriate
for an urban renewal project. The local governing body shall not approve an urban
renewal plan until a general plan for the municipality has been prepared. A municipality
shall not acquire real property for an urban renewal project unless the local governing
body has approved the urban renewal project in accordance with subsection (d) of this
section.
(b) The municipality may itself prepare or cause to be prepared an urban renewal plan,
or any person or agency, public or private, may submit such a plan to a municipality.
Prior to its approval of an urban renewal project, the local governing body shall
submit such plan to the planning commission of the municipality, if any, for review
and recommendations as to its conformity with the general plan for the development
of the municipality as a whole. The planning commission shall submit its written
recommendations with respect to the proposed urban renewal plan to the local governing
body within 30 days after receipt of the plan for review. Upon receipt of the recommendations
of the planning commission or, if no recommendations are received within said 30 days,
then without such recommendations, the local governing body may proceed with the hearing
on the proposed urban renewal project prescribed by subsection (c) of this section.
(c) The local governing body shall hold a public hearing on an urban renewal project,
after public notice thereof by publication in a newspaper having a general circulation
in the area of operation of the municipality. The notice shall describe the time,
date, place, and purpose of the hearing, shall generally identify the urban renewal
area covered by the plan, and shall outline the general scope of the urban renewal
project under consideration.
(d) Following such hearing, the local governing body may approve an urban renewal project
if it finds that (1) a feasible method exists for the location of families who will
be displaced from the urban renewal area in decent, safe, and sanitary dwelling accommodations
within their means and without undue hardship to such families; (2) the urban renewal
plan gives due consideration to the provision of adequate park and recreational areas
and facilities that may be desirable for neighborhood improvement, with special consideration
for the health, safety, and welfare of children residing in the general vicinity of
the site covered by the plan; (3) the urban renewal plan conforms to the general plan
of the municipality as a whole; and (4) the urban renewal plan will afford maximum
opportunity, consistent with the sound needs of the municipality as a whole, for the
rehabilitation or redevelopment of the urban renewal area by private enterprise; provided,
that if the urban renewal area consists of an area of open land to be acquired by
the municipality, such area shall not be so acquired unless (A) if it is to be developed
for residential uses, the local governing body shall determine that a shortage of
housing of sound standards and design which is decent, safe, and sanitary exists in
the municipality; that the need for housing accommodations has been or will be increased
as a result of the clearance of slums in other areas, including other portions of
the urban renewal area; that the conditions of blight in the area and the shortage
of decent, safe, and sanitary housing cause or contribute to an increase in and spread
of disease and crime and constitute a menace to the public health, safety, morals,
or welfare; and the acquisition of the area for residential uses is an integral part
of an essential to the program of the municipality; or (B) if it is to be developed
for nonresidential uses, the local governing body shall determine that such nonresidential
uses are necessary and appropriate to facilitate the proper growth and development
of the community in accordance with sound planning standards and local community objectives,
with acquisition may require the exercise of governmental action, as provided in this
chapter, because of defective or unusual conditions of title, diversity of ownership,
tax delinquency, improper subdivisions, outmoded street patterns, deterioration of
site, economic disuse, unsuitable topography or faulty lot layouts, the need for the
correlation of the area with other areas of a municipality by streets and modern traffic
requirements, or any combination of such favors or other conditions which retard development
of the area.
(e) An urban renewal plan may be modified at any time; provided, that if modified after
the lease or sale by the municipality of real property in the urban renewal project
area, such modification may be conditioned upon such approval of the owner, lessee,
or successor in interest as the municipality may deem advisable and in any event shall
be subject to such rights at law or in equity as a lessee or purchaser, or his successor
or successors in interest, may be entitled to assert.
(f) Upon the approval by a municipality by a vote of a majority of the voters present
and voting on the question at a regular or special meeting duly warned for that purpose
of an urban renewal plan or of any modification thereof, such plan or modification
shall be deemed to be in full force and effect for the respective urban renewal area
and the municipality may then cause such plan or modification to be carried out in
accordance with its terms.
(g) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, where the local governing body
certifies that an area is in need of redevelopment or rehabilitation as a result of
a flood, fire, hurricane, earthquake, storm, or other catastrophe respecting which
the government of the State has certified the need for disaster assistance under Public
Law 875, eighty-first Congress, or other federal law, the local governing body may
approve an urban renewal plan and an urban renewal project with respect to such area
without regard to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section and the provisions
of this section requiring a general plan for the municipality and a public hearing
on the urban renewal project. (Amended 1966, No. 69 (Sp. Sess.), § 4, eff. March 14, 1966.)