Section A1–103. Additional Powers.

   The municipality 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 appendix and to fully accomplish the purposes and objects contemplated by the provisions of this section:

   (a)   To make or have made all surveys and plans necessary to the carrying out of the purposes of this appendix and to adopt or approve, modify and amend those plans. These plans may include, but are not limited to:

      (1)   Plans for carrying out a program of voluntary or compulsory repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements;

      (2)   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

      (3)   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;

   (b)   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;

   (c)   To appropriate whatever funds and make whatever expenditures as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this appendix, including, but not limited:

      (1)   To the payment of any and all costs and expenses incurred in connectin [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;

      (2)   To levy taxes and assessments for those purposes;

      (3)   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 appendix, and to give whatever security as may be required for this financial assistance;

      (4)   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;

   (d)   (1)   To hold, improve, clear or prepare for redevelopment any property acquired in connection with urban renewal projects;

      (2)   To mortgage, pledge, hypothecate or otherwise encumber that property; and

      (3)   To insure or provide for the insurance of the property or operations of the municipality against any risks or hazards, including the power to pay premiums on any such insurance;

   (e)   To make and execute all contracts and other instruments necessary or convenient to the exercise of its powers under this appendix, 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 whatever conditions imposed pursuant to Federal laws as the municipality considers reasonable and appropriate;

   (f)   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 municipality is situated in the event entry is denied or resisted;

   (g)   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;

   (h)   To generally organize, coordinate and direct the administration of the provisions of this appendix as they apply to the municipality in order that the objective of remedying slum and blighted areas and preventing its causes within the municipality may be promoted and achieved most effectively;

   (i)   To exercise all or any part or combination of the powers granted to this appendix.

Section A1–104. Establishment of Urban Renewel [Renewal] Agency.

   (a)   A municipality may itself exercise all the powers granted by this appendix, 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 municipality the activities authorized by this appendix.

   (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.

   (e)   In the event the legislative body enacts this ordinance, all of the powers by this appendix granted to the municipality, from the effective date of the ordinance, are vested in the public body or agency established by the ordinance.

Section A1–105. Powers Withheld from the Agency.

   The agency may not:

   (a)   Pass a resolution to initiate an urban renewal project pursuant to Section A1-106 of this appendix.

   (b)   Issue general obligation bonds pursuant to Section A1-109 of this appendix.

   (c)   The power to appropriate funds, and to levy taxes and assessments pursuant to Section A1–103(c) of this appendix.

Section A1–106. Initiation of Project.

   In order to initiate an urban renewal project, the legislative body of the municipality shall adopt a resolution which[:]

   (a)   Finds that one or more slum or blighted areas exist in the municipality;

   (b)   Locates and defines the slum or blighted areas;

   (c)   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 municipality.

Section A1–107. Preparation and Approval of Plan for Urban Renewal Project.

   (a)   In order to carry out the purposes of this appendix, the municipality shall have prepared an urban renewal plan for slum or blighted areas in the municipality, and shall approve the plan formally. Prior to its approval of an urban renewal project, the municipality shall submit the plan to the planning body of the municipality for review and recommendations as to its conformity with the master plan for the development of the municipality as a whole. The planning body shall submit its written recommendation with respect to the proposed urban renewal plan to the municipality within 60 days after receipt of the plan for review. Upon receipt of the recommendations of the planning body or, if no recommendations are received within the 60 days, then without the recommendations, the municipality may proceed with a public hearing on the proposed urban renewal project. The municipality 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 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. Following the hearing, the municipality 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 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 municipality as a whole; and

      (3)   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.

   (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 upon whatever approval of the owner, lessee or successor in interest as the municipality considers advisable. In any event it shall be subject to whatever rights at law or in equity as a lessee or purchaser, or his 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 municipality, the modification shall be approved formally by the municipality, as in the case of an original plan.

   (c)   Upon the approval by the municipality of an urban renewal plan or 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 municipality may have the plan or modification carried out in accordance with its terms.

Section A1–108. Disposal of Property in Urban Renewal Area.

   (a)   The municipality 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 appendix. 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 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. 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 municipality shall take into account and give consideration to the uses provided in the 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 the plan for the prevention of the recurrence of slum or blighted areas. In any instrument of conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee, the municipality may provide that the purchaser or lessee may not sell, lease or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written consent of the municipality until he has completed the construction of any or all improvements which he has obligated himself to construct on the property. Real property acquired by the 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. Any contract for the transfer and the urban renewal plan (or whatever part or parts of the contract or plan as the municipality determines) may be recorded in the land records of the county in which the municipality is situated in a manner so as to afford actual or constructive notice of it.

   (b)   The municipality 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 appendix, without regard to the provisions of subsection (a) above, for uses and purposes considered desirable even though not in conformity with the urban renewal plan.

   (c)   Any instrument executed by the municipality and purporting to convey any right, title or interest in any property under this appendix shall be presumed conclusively to have been executed in compliance with the provisions of this appendix insofar as title or other interest of any bona fide purchasers, lessees or transferees of the property is concerned.

Section A1–109. Eminent Domain.

   Condemnation of land or property under the provisions of this appendix shall be in accordance with the procedure provided in the Real Property Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.