§ 3213. Disposal of property in urban renewal area

(a)(1) A municipality may sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property or any interest therein acquired by it, and may enter into contracts with respect thereto, in an urban renewal area for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, or other uses or for public use, or may retain such property or interest for public use, in accordance with the urban renewal plan, subject to such covenants, conditions, and restrictions, including covenants running with the land, as it may deem to be 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; provided, that such sale, lease, other transfer, or retention, and any agreement relating thereto, may be made only after the approval of the urban renewal plan by vote of the municipality as provided in subsection 3207(f) of this title.

(2) The purchasers or lessees and their successors and assigns shall be obligated to devote such real property only to the uses specified in the urban renewal plan, and may be obligated to comply with such other requirements as the municipality may determine to be in the public interest, including the obligation to begin within a reasonable time any improvements on such real property required by the urban renewal plan.

(3) Such 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 of real property for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan, a municipality shall take into account and give consideration to the uses provided in such plan; the restrictions upon, and the covenants, conditions, and obligations assumed by the purchaser or lessee or by the municipality retaining the property; and the objectives of such plan for the prevention of the recurrence of slum or blighted areas.

(4) The municipality in any instrument of conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee may provide that such purchaser or lessee shall be without power to sell, lease, or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written consent of the municipality until he or she has completed the construction of any or all improvements which he or she has obligated himself or herself to construct thereon.

(5) Real property acquired by a municipality 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.

(6) Any contract for such transfer and the urban renewal plan, or such part or parts of such contract or plan as the municipality may determine, may be recorded in the land records of the municipality in such manner as to afford actual or constructive notice thereof.

(b) A municipality may dispose of real property in an urban renewal area to private persons only under such reasonable competitive bidding procedures as it shall prescribe or as hereinafter provided in this subsection. A municipality may, by public notice by publication in a newspaper having a general circulation in the community, 30 days prior to the execution of any contract to sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property and prior to the delivery of any instrument of conveyance with respect thereto under the provisions of this section, 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. Such notice shall identify the area, or portion thereof, and shall state that proposals shall be made by those interested within 30 days after the date of publication of said notice, and that such further information as is available may be obtained at such office as shall be designated in said notice. The municipality shall consider all such redevelopment or rehabilitation proposals and the financial and legal ability of the persons making such 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 municipality in the urban renewal area. The municipality may accept such proposal as it deems to be in the public interest and in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter; provided, that notification of intention to accept such proposal shall be filed with the governing body not less than 30 days prior to any such acceptance. Thereafter, the municipality may execute such contract in accordance with the provisions of subsection (a) of this section and deliver deeds, leases, and other instruments and take all steps necessary to effectuate such contract.

(c) A municipality may temporarily operate and maintain real property acquired in an urban renewal area pending the disposition of the property as authorized in this chapter, without regard to the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, for such uses and purposes as may be deemed desirable even though not in conformity with the urban renewal plan.

(d) Any real property acquired under subdivision 3209(4) of this title may be disposed of without regard to other provisions of this section if the local governing body consents to the disposal.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, where the municipality is situated in an area designated as a redevelopment area or economic development center under the federal Area Redevelopment Act or other federal law enacted to assist in the economic development of areas suffering substantial and persistent unemployment or underemployment, land in an urban renewal project area designated under the urban renewal plan for industrial or commercial use may be disposed of to any public body or nonprofit corporation for later disposition as promptly as practicable by the public body or corporation, for redevelopment in accordance with the urban renewal plan, and only the purchaser from or lessee of the public body or corporation and their assignees shall be required to assume the obligation of beginning the building of improvements within a reasonable time. Any disposition of land to a public body or corporation under this subsection shall be made at its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan.

(f) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this chapter, a municipality may sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property or any interest therein acquired by it for urban renewal purposes:

(1) To any person designated by the municipality and approved by the local governing body as a qualified eligible sponsor, if:

(A) The municipality publishes, in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the municipality at least ten days before the sale, lease, or other disposition, a notice which includes a statement of the identity of the proposed sponsor and his or her proposed use or re-use of the urban renewal area or of the applicable portion thereof. That notice shall be in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the municipality.

(B) The proposed sponsor agrees to pay not less than the minimum price or rental fixed by the municipality for the real property.

(C) The proposed sponsor matches any bid higher than that minimum price or rental.

(D) And the sale, lease, or other disposition requires effectuation of the purpose thereof within a definite and reasonable time.

(E) If that sponsor does not agree to pay the minimum price or rental fixed by the municipality or fails to match any higher bid than that minimum price or rental, municipality may, in its sole discretion and only if consistent with the urban renewal plan, sell or lease any such real property or any interest therein to any other person bidding under provisions of subsection (b) of this section.

(2) To any person designated by the municipality and approved by the local governing body as a qualified sponsor, without bids or other requirements of subsection (b) of this section, if:

(A) the price or rental to be paid by the sponsor for the property and all other essential terms and conditions of the sale, lease, or other disposition are included in the notice published by the municipality under paragraph (A) of subdivision (1) of this section;

(B) the sale, lease, or other disposition is approved by the local governing body after a public hearing held not less than ten days after publication of the notice.

(g) Sponsors under subsection (f) of this section shall be designated by following the procedure set forth in subsection (b) of this section, except that the public notice therein required need not be made 30 days before the execution of any contract to sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property, as set forth in subsection (b) of this section.

(h) For the effectuation of any of the purposes of an urban renewal project and in accordance with the urban renewal plan, a municipality may grant, sell, convey, or lease, without public hearing or public letting and without following the requirements of subsection (b) of this section, to a public utility subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Service, for such length of time as it may deem advisable, franchises, easements, or rights-of-way, in, over, below, along, or across any lands acquired by the municipality under this chapter, upon such terms and conditions, for such consideration, and subject to such restrictions as in the judgment of its local governing body seem proper if the local governing body first determines that the use and enjoyment for those purposes of those lands is not inconsistent with the purposes and provisions of the urban renewal plan. (Amended 1966, No. 69 (Sp. Sess.),§§ 7, 8, eff. March 14, 1966.)