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A corporation shall have the following powers:

(1)  To sue and be sued.  

(2)  To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure.  

(3)  To adopt, amend, or repeal bylaws for its organization and internal management and to make rules and regulations with respect to its development program, operations, properties, and facilities.  

(4)  To make and execute contracts, and all other instruments necessary or convenient for the exercise of its powers and functions under this Chapter, including agreements with noteholders, bondholders, guarantors, or others interested in any evidences of indebtedness of the corporation relating to matters pertaining to the securities being issued, including limitations of the activities and indebtedness of the corporation.

(5)  To appoint officers and prescribe their qualifications and duties, to retain independent auditors, legal counsel and appraisers, and to retain such consultants and employees as may be desirable, convenient, or necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Chapter and, consistent with civil service requirements, to fix and determine their duties and compensation on a contract basis or otherwise.  

(6)  To acquire by purchase, lease, option, gift, grant, bequest, devise or otherwise, any property, real, personal or mixed, together with any improvements thereon; to hold, improve, preserve, clear, or prepare for development any such property; to own, operate, maintain, sell, lease, convey, transfer, exchange, mortgage, pledge or otherwise dispose of, or in any manner encumber or place restrictions on or create a security interest in, or grant options with respect to all or any part of its real, personal or mixed property or any interest therein on such terms and conditions as the corporation may deem to be in the public interest and advisable in connection with its corporate purposes; to insure or provide for the insurance of any real or personal property or operations in the parish or municipality against any risks or hazards, including the power to pay premiums on any such insurance; and to enter into any contracts necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Chapter provided, however, that upon the determination by the board of directors that the public interest will be best served by the purchase or disposition of property in a tax increment development area without restrictions applicable to public bodies, no statutory provision restricting the purchase or disposition of property by public bodies shall be applicable to or affect the activities of the corporation in the exercise of such functions with respect to a tax increment development project or related activities; provided, however, the board of directors shall be required at all times to comply with the provisions of Chapter 10 of Title 38 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950 relating to public contracts and anything contained herein to the contrary notwithstanding, the board of directors shall have no authority to waive any of the provisions of said Chapter 10.  

(7)  To accept a purchase money mortgage in connection with the sale of any real or personal property and to repurchase or otherwise reacquire and hold any real or personal property which the corporation has theretofore sold, leased or otherwise conveyed, transferred or disposed of, all upon such terms and conditions as the corporation may deem advisable for its corporate purposes.  

(8)  To prepare or cause to be prepared a general development plan for a tax increment development area and to modify such plan from time to time as the corporation deems necessary or appropriate.  

(9)  To prepare or cause to be prepared plans, specifications, designs and estimates of cost, including specific development plans, for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, preservation, improvement, alteration, or repair of any property within the tax increment development area and from time to time to modify such plans, specifications, designs, or estimates.  

(10)  To manage or cause to be managed any or all of a tax increment development project and to enter into agreements with the United States, the state or any parish or municipality, or any agency or instrumentality thereof or with any person, firm, partnership, corporation or other entity, either public or private, for the purpose of causing such development project or projects to be managed.  

(11)  To create one or more subsidiary corporations and to cause such subsidiary or subsidiaries to exercise any powers which the corporation is permitted to exercise.  

(12)  To lend or donate monies, whether secured or unsecured, to any subsidiary corporation and to purchase, sell, or pledge the shares, bonds or other obligations or securities thereof on such terms and conditions as the corporation may deem advisable.  

(13)  To plan, replan, open, dedicate, create or close private or public streets, roads, roadways, alleys, sidewalks and other rights of way; upon compliance with applicable rules and regulations, and to provide and furnish, or contract with the parish or municipality or others for the providing and furnishing of, any public facilities or services including local transportation facilities in connection with a development project, provided that where a public utility corporation is legally authorized pursuant to a franchise or indeterminate permit to provide utility service or services within the area comprising the tax increment development project, the corporation shall not provide and furnish nor contract for the providing and furnishing of such service or services without the consent of such public utility corporation.  

(14)  To place land use restrictions, building restrictions and architectural and aesthetic controls by covenants, declarations, regulations or otherwise on any real property that may be disposed of by the corporation pursuant to this Chapter.  

(15)  To encumber any real property that may be disposed of by the corporation with liens, covenants, declarations, or restrictions requiring the payment of ad valorem taxes or other assessments with respect to such property or any improvements thereon, to any individual, corporation, association, or other entity acquiring such property or to require the waiver of rights to claim homestead exemptions for residential rent property charged with the furnishing or maintenance of recreational, social or other facilities, whether public or otherwise, to a tax increment community, and to exempt any such property, in whole or in part from the imposition of such liens, covenants, taxes, assessments, declarations, or restrictions.  

(16)  To acquire, construct, reconstruct, improve, alter, rehabilitate, enlarge, preserve, operate, and maintain structures, appurtenances and facilities necessary or convenient in connection with the purposes of this Chapter.  

(17)  To make contracts, incur liabilities, borrow money at such rates of interest, maturities and on such other terms and conditions as the corporation may determine, issue its notes, bonds and other obligations, including such bonds, notes or other obligations as are authorized by Title VII to be guaranteed by the United States, and secure any of its obligations by mortgage, deed of trust, or pledge of all or any of its real or personal property or any interest therein, whether then owned or thereafter acquired, and to pledge the revenues and receipts from all or any of its real or personal property and to assign or pledge the income received by virtue of said lease or leases and, subject to the provisions of any contract with noteholders, bondholders or guarantors, to consent to the modification, with respect to rate of interest, time of payment of any installment of principal or interest secured or any other term, of any mortgage, mortgage loan, mortgage loan commitment, contract, or agreement of any kind to which the corporation is a party.  

(18)  In connection with any property on which it has made a mortgage loan, to foreclose on any such property or commence any action or protect or enforce any right conferred upon it by any law, mortgage, contract, or other agreement and to bid for and purchase such property at any foreclosure or at any other sale or otherwise acquire or take possession of any such property; and in such event the corporation may complete, administer, pay the principal of and interest on any obligations incurred in connection with such property, dispose of and otherwise deal with such property in such manner as may be necessary or desirable to protect the interest of the corporation therein.  

(19)  Subject to any restrictions contained in any agreement with bondholders, noteholders or guarantors, to invest any funds held in reserve or sinking funds or any funds not required for immediate use or disbursement, in property or securities in which public bodies may legally invest funds subject to their control; to redeem such bonds as have been issued at the redemption price established therein or to purchase such bonds at less than redemption price, all such bonds so redeemed or purchased to be cancelled.  

(20)  To contract for and to accept any gifts, grants or loans of funds or property, any guarantees of loans or bonds, or financial or other aid or assistance in any form from the United States government, the state of Louisiana or the parish or municipality or any agency or instrumentality of any of the foregoing or from any other source including but not limited to private corporations, trusts, foundations and other entities, to expend the proceeds for any corporate purpose and to comply with any conditions required for the obtaining of any such assistance, including, but not limited to, the execution of any compliance with a project agreement and other agreements or documents required by the United States under Title VII or any successor statute.  

(21)  To enter into agreements with the parish or municipality and the state of Louisiana and the United States or any of them for any lawful purposes necessary or desirable to effectuate the purposes of this Chapter, including agreements to maintain or operate any public, semipublic, private or community facility or utility constructed or caused to be constructed by the corporation or any subsidiary corporation and to acquire by lease or otherwise any right or interest in such facility or utility, provided that where a public utility corporation is legally authorized pursuant to a franchise or indeterminate permit to provide utility service or services within the area comprising the tax increment development project, the corporation shall not construct or cause to be constructed nor acquire by lease or otherwise any utility said public utility corporation is authorized to provide in said area without the consent of said public utility corporation.  

(22)  To comply with all ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations of the parish or municipality relating to the adoption of building and performance codes and standards for roads, streets, buildings, sewer and water lines, etc.; to comply with all ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations of the parish or municipality relating to the issuance of razing, building and use and occupancy permits and compliance certificates or approvals within a tax increment development area; anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding, the corporation and any subsidiary corporation or private corporation with which the corporation has contracted shall comply with all ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations of the parish or municipality establishing building and performance codes or requiring use and occupancy permits and compliance certificates as a prerequisite for building construction in said parish or municipality.  

(23)  To delegate to a development management such duties and responsibilities as it deems necessary or convenient in order to carry out the purposes of this Chapter.  

(24)  To make available to the federal government, the state and to the parish or municipality or any appropriate agency, the recommendations of the corporation affecting any area in its field of operation or property therein, which it may deem likely to promote the public health, morals, safety or welfare.  

(25)  To distribute to the parish or municipality all surplus profits arising out of the operation of a new community project.  

(26)  To exercise the power of expropriation for the purpose of forwarding the objectives of a tax increment development plan, such power of expropriation to be utilized whenever necessary to carry out the purposes of this Chapter, provided, however, that each exercise of such power shall be (a) specifically concurred in by the governing body prior to its exercise or (b) consistent with an approved comprehensive plan prepared by the planning body.  

(27)  To enter into partnerships, joint ventures, and other relationships with any federal, state or local governmental agency or with any private or public person, firm, partnership, corporation or other entity, provided:

(a)  That the objectives of such concerted activities shall be to forward the objectives of this Chapter,

(b)  That any profit flowing to any nonpublic body as a result of such joint activities shall be reasonable, in the judgment of the corporation, in light of the services rendered and activities undertaken by such private party, and

(c)  The corporation shall make express findings by resolution that it does not believe that it would be feasible for it to undertake the activity in question without participation by such other entities.  

(28)  To do any and all things necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes of this Chapter and exercise the powers given and granted in this Chapter.  

Acts 1988, No. 996, §1.