[Added 7-2-2024 by Res. No. 2024-2]
In this article the following words have the meanings indicated.
An area or single property in which the building or buildings
have declined in productivity by reason of obsolescence, depreciation,
or other causes to an extent they no longer justify fundamental repairs
and adequate maintenance.
Any bonds (including refunding bonds), notes, interim certificates,
certificates of indebtedness, debentures, or other obligations.
The United States of America or any Town or instrumentality,
corporate or otherwise, of the United States of America.
Any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company,
association, joint stock association, or body politic. It includes
any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other person acting in similar
representative capacity.
Any area or single property where dwellings predominate which,
by reason of depreciation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement or design,
lack of ventilation, light, or sanitary facilities, or any combination
of these factors, are detrimental to the public safety, health, or
morals.
The Town of Mount Airy, Maryland.
A slum area or a blighted area or a combination of them which
the Town designates as appropriate for an urban renewal project.
A plan, as it exists from time to time, for an urban renewal
project. The plan shall be sufficiently complete to indicate any land
acquisition, demolition, and removal of structures, redevelopment,
improvements, and rehabilitation as may be proposed to be carried
out in the urban renewal area, zoning and planning changes, if any,
land uses, maximum density, and building requirements.
Undertakings and activities of a Town in an urban renewal
area for the elimination and for the prevention of the development
or spread of slums and blight, and may involve slum clearance and
redevelopment in an urban renewal area, or rehabilitation or conservation
in an urban renewal area, or any combination or part of them in accordance
with an urban renewal plan. These undertakings and activities may
include:
Acquisition of a slum area or a blighted area or portion of
them;
Demolition and removal of buildings and improvements;
Installation, construction or reconstruction of streets, utilities,
parks, playgrounds, and other improvements necessary for carrying
out the urban renewal objectives of this article in accordance with
the urban renewal plan:
Disposition of any property acquired in the urban renewal area,
including sale, initial leasing, or retention by the Town itself,
at its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan;
Carrying out plans for a program of voluntary or compulsory
repair and rehabilitation of buildings or other improvements in accordance
with the urban renewal plan;
Acquisition of any other real property in the urban renewal
area where necessary to eliminate unhealthful, unsanitary, or unsafe
conditions, lessen density, eliminate obsolete or other uses detrimental
to the public welfare, or otherwise to remove or prevent the spread
of blight or deterioration, or to provide land for needed public facilities;
and
The preservation, improvement, or embellishment of historic
structures or monuments.
A.
The Town may undertake and carry out urban renewal projects.
B.
These projects shall be limited:
(1)
To slum clearance in slum or blighted areas and redevelopment or
the rehabilitation of slum or blighted areas;
(2)
To acquire in connection with those projects, within the corporate
limits of the Town, land and property of every kind and any right,
interest, franchise, easement, or privilege, including land or property
and any right or interest already devoted to public use, by purchase,
lease, gift, condemnation, or any other legal means; and
(3)
To sell, lease, convey, transfer, or otherwise dispose of any of
the land or property, regardless of whether or not it has been developed,
redeveloped, altered, or improved and irrespective of the manner or
means in or by which it may have been acquired, to any private, public,
or quasi-public corporation, partnership, association, person, or
other legal entity.
C.
Land or property taken by the Town for any of these purposes or in
connection with the exercise of any of the powers which are granted
by this article to the Town by exercising the power of eminent domain
may not be taken without just compensation, as agreed on between the
parties, or awarded by a jury, being first paid or tendered to the
party entitled to the compensation.
D.
All land or property needed or taken by the exercise of the power
of eminent domain by the Town for any of these purposes or in connection
with the exercise of any of the powers granted by this article is
declared to be needed or taken for public uses and purposes.
E.
Any or all of the activities authorized pursuant to this article
constitute governmental functions undertaken for public uses and purposes
and the power of taxation may be exercised, public funds expended,
and public credit extended in furtherance of them.
A.
The Town has the following additional powers. These powers are declared
to be necessary and proper to carry into full force and effect the
specific powers granted in this article and to fully accomplish the
purposes and objects contemplated by the provisions of this section:
(1)
To make or have made all surveys and plans necessary to the carrying
out of the purposes of this article and to adopt or approve, modify,
and amend those plans. These plans may include, but are not limited
to:
(a)
Plans for carrying out a program of voluntary or compulsory
repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements:
(b)
Plans for the enforcement of codes and regulations relating
to the use of land and the use and occupancy of buildings and improvements
and to the compulsory repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal
of buildings and improvements; and
(c)
Appraisals, title searches, surveys, studies, and other plans
and work necessary to prepare for the undertaking of urban renewal
projects and related activities; and to apply for, accept, and utilize
grants of funds from the federal government or other governmental
entity for those purposes;
(2)
To prepare plans for the relocation of persons (including families,
business concerns, and others) displaced from an urban renewal area,
and to make relocation payments to or with respect to those persons
for moving expenses and losses of property for which reimbursement
or compensation is not otherwise made, including the making of payments
financed by the federal government;
(3)
To appropriate whatever funds and make whatever expenditures as may
be necessary to carry out the purposes of this article, including,
but not limited:
(a)
To the payment of any and all costs and expenses incurred in
connection with, or incidental to, the acquisition of land or property,
and for the demolition, removal, relocation, renovation, or alteration
of land, buildings, streets, highways, alleys, utilities, or services,
and other structures or improvements, and for the construction, reconstruction,
installation, relocation, or repair of streets, highways, alleys,
utilities, or services, in connection with urban renewal projects;
(b)
To levy taxes and assessments for those purposes;
(c)
To borrow money and to apply for and accept advances, loans,
grants, contributions, and any other form of financial assistance
from the federal government, the state, county, or other public bodies,
or from any sources, public or private, for the purposes of this article,
and to give whatever security as may be required for this financial
assistance; and
(d)
To invest any urban renewal funds held in reserves or sinking
funds or any of these funds not required for immediate disbursement
in property or securities which are legal investments for other municipal
funds;
(4)
_____
(a)
To hold, improve, clear, or prepare for redevelopment any property
acquired in connection with urban renewal projects;
(b)
To mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, or otherwise encumber that
property; and
(c)
To insure or provide for the insurance of the property or operations
of the Town against any risks or hazards, including the power to pay
premiums on any insurance;
(5)
To make and execute all contracts and other instruments necessary
or convenient to the exercise of its powers under this article, including
the power to enter into agreements with other public bodies or agencies
(these agreements may extend over any period, notwithstanding any
provision or rule of law to the contrary), and to include in any contract
for financial assistance with the federal government for or with respect
to an urban renewal project and related activities any conditions
imposed pursuant to federal laws as the Town considers reasonable
and appropriate;
(6)
To enter into any building or property in any urban renewal area
in order to make inspections, surveys, appraisals, soundings, or test
borings, and to obtain an order for this purpose from the circuit
court for the county in which the Town is situated in the event entry
is denied or resisted;
(7)
To plan, replan, install, construct, reconstruct, repair, close,
or vacate streets, roads, sidewalks, public utilities, parks, playgrounds,
and other public improvements in connection with an urban renewal
project; and to make exceptions from building regulations;
(8)
To generally organize, coordinate, and direct the administration
of the provisions of this article as they apply to the Town in order
that the objective of remedying Slum and blighted areas and preventing
its causes within the Town may be promoted and achieved most effectively;
and
(9)
To exercise all or any part or combination of the powers granted
in this article.
A.
The Town may itself exercise all the powers granted by this article,
or may, if its legislative body by ordinance determines the action
to be in the public interest, elect to have the powers exercised by
a separate public body or agency.
B.
In the event the legislative body makes that determination, it shall
proceed by ordinance to establish a public body or agency to undertake
in the Town the activities authorized by this article.
C.
The ordinance shall include provisions establishing the number of
members of the public body or agency, the manner of their appointment
and removal, and the terms of the members and their compensation.
D.
The ordinance may include whatever additional provisions relating
to the organization of the public body or Agency as may be necessary.
A.
In order to initiate an urban renewal project, the legislative body
of the Town shall adopt a resolution which:
(1)
Finds that one or more slum or blighted areas exist in the Town;
(2)
Locates and defines the slum or blighted area; and
(3)
Finds that the rehabilitation, redevelopment, or a combination of
them, of the area or areas, is necessary and in the interest of the
public health, safety, morals, or welfare of the residents of the
Town.
A.
In order to carry out the purposes of this article, the Town shall
have prepared an urban renewal plan for slum or blighted areas in
the Town, and shall approve the plan formally. The Town shall hold
a public hearing on an urban renewal project after public notice of
it by publication in a newspaper having a general circulation within
the corporate limits of the Town. 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. Following
the hearing, the Town may approve an urban renewal project and the
plan therefor if it finds that:
(1)
A feasible method exists for the location of any families or natural
persons who will be displaced from the urban renewal area in decent,
safe, and sanitary dwelling accommodations within their means and
without undue hardship to the families or natural persons;
(2)
The urban renewal plan conforms substantially to the master plan
of the Town as a whole; and
(3)
The urban renewal plan will afford maximum opportunity, consistent
with the sound needs of the Town as a whole, for the rehabilitation
or redevelopment of the urban renewal area by private enterprise.
B.
An urban renewal plan may be modified at any time. If modified after
the lease or sale of real property in the urban renewal project area,
the modification may be conditioned on whatever approval of the owner,
lessee, or successor in interest as the Town considers advisable.
In any event, it shall be subject to whatever rights at law or in
equity as a lessee or purchaser, or the successor or successors in
interest, may be entitled to assert. Where the proposed modification
will change substantially the urban renewal plan as approved previously
by the Town, the modification shall be approved formally by the Town,
as in the case of an original plan.
C.
On the approval by the Town of an urban renewal plan or of any modification
of it, the plan or modification shall be considered to be in full
force and effect for the respective urban renewal area. The Town may
have the plan or modification carried out in accordance with its terms.
A.
The Town, by ordinance, may sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real
property or any interest in it acquired by it for an urban renewal
project to any person for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial,
educational, or other uses or for public use, or it may retain the
property or interest for public use, in accordance with the urban
renewal plan and subject to whatever covenants, conditions, and restrictions,
including covenants running with the land, as it considers 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 article. The purchasers or lessees and their successors and
assigns shall be obligated to devote the real property only to the
uses specified in the urban renewal plan, and may be obligated to
comply with whatever other requirements the Town 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. The real property or interest may not be sold,
leased, otherwise transferred, or retained at less than its fair value
for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan. In determining
the fair value of real property for uses in accordance with the urban
renewal plan, the Town shall take into account and give consideration
to the uses provided in the plan, the restrictions on, and the covenants,
conditions, and obligations assumed by the purchaser or lessee or
by the Town retaining the property, and the objectives of the plan
for the prevention of the recurrence of slum or blighted areas. In
any instrument or conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee, the
Town may provide that the purchaser or lessee may not sell, lease,
or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written
consent of the Town until the purchaser or lessee has completed the
construction of any or all improvements which the purchaser or lessee
has been obligated to construct on the property. Real property acquired
by the Town which, in accordance with the provisions of the urban
renewal plan, is to be transferred shall be transferred as rapidly
as feasible in the public interest consistent with the carrying out
of the provisions of the urban renewal plan. Any contract for the
transfer and the urban renewal plan (or any part or parts of the contract
or plan as the Town determines) may be recorded in the land records
of the county in which the Town is situated in a manner so as to afford
actual or constructive notice of it.
B.
The Town, by ordinance, may dispose of real property in an urban
renewal area to private persons. The Town may, by public notice by
publication in a newspaper having a general circulation in the community,
invite proposals from and make available all pertinent information
to private redevelopers or any persons interested in undertaking to
redevelop or rehabilitate an urban renewal area, or any part thereof.
The notice shall identify the area, or portion thereof, and shall
state that proposals shall be made by those interested within a specified
period. The Town shall consider all redevelopment or rehabilitation
proposals and the financial and legal ability of the persons making
proposals to carry them out, and may negotiate with any persons for
proposals for the purchase, lease, or other transfer of any real property
acquired by the Town in the urban renewal area. The Town may accept
any proposal as it deems to be in the public interest and in furtherance
of the purposes of this article. Thereafter, the Town may execute
and deliver contracts, deeds, leases, and other instruments and take
all steps necessary to effectuate the transfers.
C.
The Town may operate temporarily and maintain real property acquired by it in an urban renewal area for or in connection with an urban renewal project pending the disposition of the property as authorized in this article, without regard to the provisions of Subsection A, for uses and purposes considered desirable even though not in conformity with the urban renewal plan.
D.
Any instrument executed by the Town and purporting to convey any
right, title, or interest in any property under this article shall
be presumed conclusively to have been executed in compliance with
the provisions of this article insofar as title or other interest
of any bona fide purchasers, lessees, or transferees of the property
is concerned.
Condemnation of land or property under the provisions of this
article shall be in accordance with the procedure provided in the
Real Property Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
The Town, to the extent it determines to be feasible in carrying
out the provisions of this article, shall afford maximum opportunity
to the rehabilitation or redevelopment of any urban renewal area by
private enterprise consistent with the sound needs of the Town as
a whole. The Town shall give consideration to this objective in exercising
its powers under this article.
For the purpose of financing and carrying out an urban renewal
project and related activities, the Town may issue and sell its general
obligation bonds. Any bonds issued by the Town pursuant to this section
shall be issued in the manner and within the limitations prescribed
by applicable law for the issuance and authorization of general obligation
bonds by the Town, and also within limitations determined by the Town.
A.
In addition to the authority conferred by § C13-11 of this article, the Town may issue revenue bonds to finance the undertaking of any urban renewal project and related activities. Also, it may issue refunding bonds for the payment or retirement of the bonds issued previously by it. The bonds shall be made payable, as to both principal and interest, solely from the income, proceeds, revenues, and funds of the Town derived from or held in connection with the undertaking and carrying out of urban renewal projects under this article. However, payment of the bonds, both as to principal and interest, may be further secured by a pledge of any loan, grant, or contribution from the federal government or other source, in aid of any urban renewal projects of the Town under this article, and by a mortgage of any urban renewal project, or any part of a project, title to which is in the Town. In addition, the Town may enter into an indenture of trust with any private banking institution of this state having trust powers and may make in the indenture of trust covenants and commitments required by any purchaser for the adequate security of the bonds.
B.
Bonds issued under this section do not constitute an indebtedness
within the meaning of any constitutional or statutory debt limitation
or restriction, are not subject to the provisions of any other law
or charter relating to the authorization, issuance, or sale of bonds,
and are exempted specifically from the restrictions contained in §§ 19-205
and 19-206 of the Local Government Article of the Annotated Code of
Maryland. Bonds issued under the provisions of this article are declared
to be issued for an essential public and governmental purpose and,
together with interest on them and income from them, are exempt from
all taxes.
C.
Bonds issued under this section shall be authorized by resolution
or ordinance of the legislative body of the Town. They may be issued
in one or more series and shall:
(1)
Bear a date or dates;
(2)
Mature at a time or times;
(3)
Bear interest at a rate or rates;
(4)
Be in a denomination or denominations;
(5)
Be in a form either with or without coupon or registered;
(6)
Carry a conversion or registration privilege;
(7)
Have a rank or priority;
(8)
Be executed in a manner;
(9)
Be payable in a medium of payment, at a place or places, and be subject
to terms of redemption (with or without premium);
(10)
Be secured in a manner; and
(11)
Have other characteristics, as are provided by the resolution,
trust indenture, or mortgage issued pursuant to it.
D.
These bonds may not be sold at less than par value at public sales
which are held after notice is published prior to the sale in a newspaper
having a general circulation in the area in which the Town is located
and in whatever other medium of publication as the Town may determine.
The bonds may be exchanged also for other bonds on the basis of par.
However, the bonds may not be sold to the federal government at private
sale at less than par, and, in the event less than all of the authorized
principal amount of the bonds is sold to the federal government, the
balance may not be sold at private sale at less than par at an interest
cost to the Town which does not exceed the interest cost to the Town
of the portion of the bonds sold to the federal government.
E.
In case any of the public officials of the Town whose signatures
appear on any bonds or coupons issued under this article cease to
be officials of the Town before the delivery of the bonds or in the
event any of the officials have become such after the date of issue
of them, the bonds are valid and binding obligations of the Town in
accordance with their terms. Any provision of any law to the contrary
notwithstanding, any bonds issued pursuant to this article are fully
negotiable.
F.
In any suit, action, or proceeding involving the validity or enforceability
of any bond issued under this article, or the security for it, any
bond which recites in substance that it has been issued by the Town
in connection with an urban renewal project shall be considered conclusively
to have been issued for that purpose, and the project shall be considered
conclusively to have been planned, located, and carried out in accordance
with the provisions of this article.
G.
All banks, trust companies, bankers, savings banks, and institutions,
building and loan associations, savings and loan associations, investment
companies, and other persons carrying on a banking or investment business;
all insurance companies, insurance associations, and other persons
carrying on an insurance business; and all executors, administrators,
curators, trustees, and other fiduciaries, may legally invest any
sinking funds, moneys, or other funds belonging to them or within
their control in any bonds or other obligations issued by the Town
pursuant to this article. However, the bonds and other obligations
shall be secured by an agreement between the issuer and the federal
government in which the issuer agrees to borrow from the federal government
and the federal government agrees to lend to the issuer, prior to
the maturity of the bonds or other obligations, moneys in an amount
which (together with any other moneys committed irrevocably to the
payment of principal and interest on the bonds or other obligations)
will suffice to pay the principal of the bonds or other obligations
with interest to maturity on them. The monies under the terms of the
agreement shall be required to be used for the purpose of paying the
principal of and the interest on the bonds or other obligations at
their maturity. The bonds and other obligations shall be authorized
security for all public deposits. This section authorizes any persons
or public or private political subdivisions and officers to use any
funds owned or controlled by them for the purchase of any bonds or
other obligations. With regard to legal investments, this section
may not be construed to relieve any person of any duty of exercising
reasonable care in selecting securities.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Mount Airy
Urban Renewal Authority Article."
