(A) The City Commission hereby finds that there exists with the city numerous blighted, deteriorated or vacant properties and that the existence of blighted and deteriorated properties within neighborhoods, and the growth and spread of blight and deterioration or the threatened deterioration of other neighborhoods and properties:
(1) Contribute substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, and to losses by fire and accident;
(2) Necessitate expensive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, and punishment, for the treatment of juvenile delinquency, for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection, and for other public services and facilities;
(3) Constitute an economic and social liability;
(4) Substantially impair or arrest the sound growth of the community;
(5) Retard the provision of decent, safe, and sanitary housing accommodations;
(6) Depreciate assessable values;
(7) Cause an abnormal exodus of families from these neighborhoods; and
(8) Are detrimental to the health, the well-being, and the dignity of many residents of these neighborhoods.
(B) The City Commission further finds that this menace cannot be effectively dealt with by private enterprise without the aids provided herein and that the benefits which would result from eliminating the blighted properties that cause the blight and deterioration of neighborhoods will accrue to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods in which these conditions exist and to the inhabitants of the city generally.
(C) Therefore, the City Commission finds that there is a need in the city for an exercise of the powers, functions and duties conferred by KRS 99.705-99.730 and the city hereby adopts the provisions of KRS 99.705-99.730 and as follows.
(Ord. 2009-07, passed 6-23-09)