Current through the 2024 Budget Session
Section 15-9-115 - Property acquired in project; disposition and use generally(a) A municipality may: (i) Sell, lease or otherwise transfer real property or any interest therein acquired by it in an urban renewal project; (ii) Enter into contracts with respect to such property for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, educational or other uses or for public use; or (iii) Retain the property or interest for public use in accordance with the urban renewal plan, subject to any covenants, conditions and restrictions, including covenants running with the land, as it deems necessary or desirable to assist in preventing the development or spread of future slums or blighted areas or to otherwise carry out the purposes of this chapter. (b) The sale, lease, other transfer or retention of property specified in subsection (a) of this section, and any agreement relating thereto, may be made only after the local governing body approves the urban renewal plan. (c) The purchasers or lessees and their successors and assigns are obliged to devote the real property only to the uses specified in the urban renewal plan and may be obligated to comply with any other requirements the municipality determines to be in the public interest, including the obligation to begin within a reasonable time any improvements on the real property required by the urban renewal plan. With respect to any real property in an urban renewal area acquired by any public body, political subdivision, agency or office of the state for uses in accordance with an urban renewal plan, the public body, political subdivision, agency or office of the state is authorized to obligate itself and its successors or assigns to devote the real property only to the uses specified in the urban renewal plan and, to the extent funds have been authorized or appropriated, to obligate itself to begin improvements required by the urban renewal plan. (d) The real property or interest shall be sold, leased, otherwise transferred or retained at not less than its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan. In determining the fair value, a municipality shall give consideration to: (i) The uses provided therein; (ii) The restrictions upon and the conditions and obligations assumed by the purchaser or lessee or by the municipality retaining the property; and (iii) The objectives of the plan for the prevention of the recurrence of slum or blighted areas. (e) The municipality in any instrument of conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee may provide that the purchaser or lessee is without power to sell, lease or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written consent of the municipality until he has completed the construction of any improvements which he is obligated to construct thereon. Real property acquired by a municipality which is to be transferred in accordance with the provisions of the urban renewal plan, shall be transferred as rapidly as feasible in the public interest consistent with carrying out of the provisions of the plan. Any contract for the transfer and the urban renewal plan shall be recorded in the land records of the county in the manner provided by law to afford actual or constructive notice thereof.