(a) Subject to appropriation, the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (in this Section, the Department) may create and administer a Demolition Loan Program. The purpose of the Program is to assist owners of commercial buildings which are:
(1) located in an urban renewal area, enterprise zone, commercial revitalization area, or other commercial area that the Director finds is blighted or threatened with blight;
(2) vacant or severely underutilized; and
(3) uneconomical to rehabilitate to meet current market demands or to maintain properly.
(b) Under lending guidelines and procedures and repayment terms approved by the Director of Finance, the Department may loan from the Economic Development Fund created under Section 20-73 to an owner of a commercial building which meets the standards of subsection (a) all or part of the cost of demolishing the building and clearing the land on which it is located. The repayment terms for any loan made under this program may allow partial or full forgiveness of the loan when the Director finds that forgiveness would best accomplish the purposes of this program.
(c) Any loan greater than an amount set by Regulation must be approved by a lending committee composed of the Director of Finance, Economic Development, and Housing and Community Affairs. Any loan greater than an amount set by Regulation must not be approved until the County Council has received notice of the loan and a reasonable opportunity to comment.
(d) The County Executive must adopt Regulations under method (2) to administer this program. (1998 L.M.C., ch. 26, § 1.)