Office of the Revisor of Statutes
Minnesota Session Laws - 2003, Regular Session
Key: (1) language to be deleted (2) new language
CHAPTER 50-S.F.No. 891
An act relating to housing and redevelopment
authorities; authorizing an authority to create
certain legal entities to engage in housing
activities; amending Minnesota Statutes 2002, section
469.012, subdivision 1.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 469.012,
subdivision 1, is amended to read:
Subdivision 1. [SCHEDULE OF POWERS.] An authority shall be
a public body corporate and politic and shall have all the
powers necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes of
sections 469.001 to 469.047, except that the power to levy and
collect taxes or special assessments is limited to the power
provided in sections 469.027 to 469.033. Its powers include the
following powers in addition to others granted in sections
469.001 to 469.047:
(1) to sue and be sued; to have a seal, which shall be
judicially noticed, and to alter it; to have perpetual
succession; and to make, amend, and repeal rules consistent with
sections 469.001 to 469.047;
(2) to employ an executive director, technical experts, and
officers, agents, and employees, permanent and temporary, that
it requires, and determine their qualifications, duties, and
compensation; for legal services it requires, to call upon the
chief law officer of the city or to employ its own counsel and
legal staff; so far as practicable, to use the services of local
public bodies in its area of operation, provided that those
local public bodies, if requested, shall make the services
available;
(3) to delegate to one or more of its agents or employees
the powers or duties it deems proper;
(4) within its area of operation, to undertake, prepare,
carry out, and operate projects and to provide for the
construction, reconstruction, improvement, extension,
alteration, or repair of any project or part thereof;
(5) subject to the provisions of section 469.026, to give,
sell, transfer, convey, or otherwise dispose of real or personal
property or any interest therein and to execute leases, deeds,
conveyances, negotiable instruments, purchase agreements, and
other contracts or instruments, and take action that is
necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes of these
sections;
(6) within its area of operation, to acquire real or
personal property or any interest therein by gifts, grant,
purchase, exchange, lease, transfer, bequest, devise, or
otherwise, and by the exercise of the power of eminent domain,
in the manner provided by chapter 117, to acquire real property
which it may deem necessary for its purposes, after the adoption
by it of a resolution declaring that the acquisition of the real
property is necessary to eliminate one or more of the conditions
found to exist in the resolution adopted pursuant to section
469.003 or to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing for
persons of low and moderate income, or is necessary to carry out
a redevelopment project. Real property needed or convenient for
a project may be acquired by the authority for the project by
condemnation pursuant to this section. Prior to adoption of a
resolution authorizing acquisition of property by condemnation,
the governing body of the authority must hold a public hearing
on the proposed acquisition after published notice in a
newspaper of general circulation in the municipality, which must
be made at least one time not less than ten days nor more than
30 days prior to the date of the hearing. The notice must
reasonably describe the property to be acquired and state that
the purpose of the hearing is to consider acquisition by
exercise of the authority's powers of eminent domain. Not less
than ten days before the hearing, notice of the hearing must
also be mailed to the owner of each parcel proposed to be
acquired, but failure to give mailed notice or any defects in
the notice does not invalidate the acquisition. For the purpose
of giving mailed notice, owners are determined in accordance
with section 429.031, subdivision 1, paragraph (a). Property
acquired by condemnation under this section may include any
property devoted to a public use, whether or not held in trust,
notwithstanding that the property may have been previously
acquired by condemnation or is owned by a public utility
corporation, because the public use in conformity with the
provisions of sections 469.001 to 469.047 shall be deemed a
superior public use. Property devoted to a public use may be so
acquired only if the governing body of the municipality has
approved its acquisition by the authority. An award of
compensation shall not be increased by reason of any increase in
the value of the real property caused by the assembly, clearance
or reconstruction, or proposed assembly, clearance or
reconstruction for the purposes of sections 469.001 to 469.047
of the real property in an area;
(7) within its area of operation, and without the adoption
of an urban renewal plan, to acquire, by all means as set forth
in clause (6) but without the adoption of a resolution provided
for in clause (6), real property, and to demolish, remove,
rehabilitate, or reconstruct the buildings and improvements or
construct new buildings and improvements thereon, or to so
provide through other means as set forth in Laws 1974, chapter
228, or to grade, fill, and construct foundations or otherwise
prepare the site for improvements. The authority may dispose of
the property pursuant to section 469.029, provided that the
provisions of section 469.029 requiring conformance to an urban
renewal plan shall not apply. The authority may finance these
activities by means of the redevelopment project fund or by
means of tax increments or tax increment bonds or by the methods
of financing provided for in section 469.033 or by means of
contributions from the municipality provided for in section
469.041, clause (9), or by any combination of those means. Real
property with buildings or improvements thereon shall only be
acquired under this clause when the buildings or improvements
are substandard. The exercise of the power of eminent domain
under this clause shall be limited to real property which
contains, or has contained within the three years immediately
preceding the exercise of the power of eminent domain and is
currently vacant, buildings and improvements which are vacated
and substandard. Notwithstanding the prior sentence, in cities
of the first class the exercise of the power of eminent domain
under this clause shall be limited to real property which
contains, or has contained within the three years immediately
preceding the exercise of the power of eminent domain, buildings
and improvements which are substandard. For the purpose of this
clause, substandard buildings or improvements mean hazardous
buildings as defined in section 463.15, subdivision 3, or
buildings or improvements that are dilapidated or obsolescent,
faultily designed, lack adequate ventilation, light, or sanitary
facilities, or any combination of these or other factors that
are detrimental to the safety or health of the community. The
exercise of the power of eminent domain under this clause is
subject to the notice and hearing requirements described in
clause (6);
(8) within its area of operation, to determine the level of
income constituting low or moderate family income. The
authority may establish various income levels for various family
sizes. In making its determination, the authority may consider
income levels that may be established by the Department of
Housing and Urban Development or a similar or successor federal
agency for the purpose of federal loan guarantees or subsidies
for persons of low or moderate income. The authority may use
that determination as a basis for the maximum amount of income
for admissions to housing development projects or housing
projects owned or operated by it;
(9) to provide in federally assisted projects any
relocation payments and assistance necessary to comply with the
requirements of the Federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and
Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, and any
amendments or supplements thereto;
(10) to make an agreement with the governing body or bodies
creating the authority which provides exemption from all ad
valorem real and personal property taxes levied or imposed by
the body or bodies creating the authority. In the case of
low-rent public housing that received financial assistance under
the United States Housing Act of 1937, or successor federal
legislation, an authority may make an agreement with the
governing body or bodies creating the authority to provide
exemption from all real and personal property taxes levied or
imposed by the state, city, county, or other political
subdivision, for which the authority shall make payments in lieu
of taxes to the state, city, county, or other political
subdivisions as provided in section 469.040. The governing body
shall agree on behalf of all the applicable governing bodies
affected that local cooperation as required by the federal
government shall be provided by the local governing body or
bodies in whose jurisdiction the project is to be located, at no
cost or at no greater cost than the same public services and
facilities furnished to other residents;
(11) to cooperate with or act as agent for the federal
government, the state or any state public body, or any agency or
instrumentality of the foregoing, in carrying out any of the
provisions of sections 469.001 to 469.047 or of any other
related federal, state, or local legislation; and upon the
consent of the governing body of the city to purchase, lease,
manage, or otherwise take over any housing project already owned
and operated by the federal government;
(12) to make plans for carrying out a program of voluntary
repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements, and
plans for the enforcement of laws, 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. The authority may develop, test, and report
methods and techniques, and carry out demonstrations and other
activities for the prevention and elimination of slums and
blight;
(13) to borrow money or other property and accept
contributions, grants, gifts, services, or other assistance from
the federal government, the state government, state public
bodies, or from any other public or private sources;
(14) to include in any contract for financial assistance
with the federal government any conditions that the federal
government may attach to its financial aid of a project, not
inconsistent with purposes of sections 469.001 to 469.047,
including obligating itself (which obligation shall be
specifically enforceable and not constitute a mortgage,
notwithstanding any other laws) to convey to the federal
government the project to which the contract relates upon the
occurrence of a substantial default with respect to the
covenants or conditions to which the authority is subject; to
provide in the contract that, in case of such conveyance, the
federal government may complete, operate, manage, lease, convey,
or otherwise deal with the project until the defaults are cured
if the federal government agrees in the contract to reconvey to
the authority the project as then constituted when the defaults
have been cured;
(15) to issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes and
to secure the bonds by mortgages upon property held or to be
held by it or by pledge of its revenues, including grants or
contributions;
(16) to invest any funds held in reserves or sinking funds,
or any funds not required for immediate disbursement, in
property or securities in which savings banks may legally invest
funds subject to their control or in the manner and subject to
the conditions provided in section 118A.04 for the deposit and
investment of public funds;
(17) within its area of operation, to determine where
blight exists or where there is unsafe, unsanitary, or
overcrowded housing;
(18) to carry out studies of the housing and redevelopment
needs within its area of operation and of the meeting of those
needs. This includes study of data on population and family
groups and their distribution according to income groups, the
amount and quality of available housing and its distribution
according to rentals and sales prices, employment, wages,
desirable patterns for land use and community growth, and other
factors affecting the local housing and redevelopment needs and
the meeting of those needs; to make the results of those studies
and analyses available to the public and to building, housing,
and supply industries;
(19) if a local public body does not have a planning agency
or the planning agency has not produced a comprehensive or
general community development plan, to make or cause to be made
a plan to be used as a guide in the more detailed planning of
housing and redevelopment areas;
(20) to lease or rent any dwellings, accommodations, lands,
buildings, structures, or facilities included in any project
and, subject to the limitations contained in sections 469.001 to
469.047 with respect to the rental of dwellings in housing
projects, to establish and revise the rents or charges therefor;
(21) to own, hold, and improve real or personal property
and to sell, lease, exchange, transfer, assign, pledge, or
dispose of any real or personal property or any interest
therein;
(22) to insure or provide for the insurance of any real or
personal property or operations of the authority against any
risks or hazards;
(23) to procure or agree to the procurement of government
insurance or guarantees of the payment of any bonds or parts
thereof issued by an authority and to pay premiums on the
insurance;
(24) to make expenditures necessary to carry out the
purposes of sections 469.001 to 469.047;
(25) to enter into an agreement or agreements with any
state public body to provide informational service and
relocation assistance to families, individuals, business
concerns, and nonprofit organizations displaced or to be
displaced by the activities of any state public body;
(26) to compile and maintain a catalog of all vacant, open
and undeveloped land, or land which contains substandard
buildings and improvements as that term is defined in clause
(7), that is owned or controlled by the authority or by the
governing body within its area of operation and to compile and
maintain a catalog of all authority owned real property that is
in excess of the foreseeable needs of the authority, in order to
determine and recommend if the real property compiled in either
catalog is appropriate for disposal pursuant to the provisions
of section 469.029, subdivisions 9 and 10;
(27) to recommend to the city concerning the enforcement of
the applicable health, housing, building, fire prevention, and
housing maintenance code requirements as they relate to
residential dwelling structures that are being rehabilitated by
low- or moderate-income persons pursuant to section 469.029,
subdivision 9, for the period of time necessary to complete the
rehabilitation, as determined by the authority;
(28) to recommend to the city the initiation of municipal
powers, against certain real properties, relating to repair,
closing, condemnation, or demolition of unsafe, unsanitary,
hazardous, and unfit buildings, as provided in section 469.041,
clause (5);
(29) to sell, at private or public sale, at the price or
prices determined by the authority, any note, mortgage, lease,
sublease, lease purchase, or other instrument or obligation
evidencing or securing a loan made for the purpose of economic
development, job creation, redevelopment, or community
revitalization by a public agency to a business, for-profit or
nonprofit organization, or an individual;
(30) within its area of operation, to acquire and sell real
property that is benefited by federal housing assistance
payments, other rental subsidies, interest reduction payments,
or interest reduction contracts for the purpose of preserving
the affordability of low- and moderate-income multifamily
housing;
(31) to apply for, enter into contracts with the federal
government, administer, and carry out a section 8 program.
Authorization by the governing body creating the authority to
administer the program at the authority's initial application is
sufficient to authorize operation of the program in its area of
operation for which it was created without additional local
governing body approval. Approval by the governing body or
bodies creating the authority constitutes approval of a housing
program for purposes of any special or general law requiring
local approval of section 8 programs undertaken by city, county,
or multicounty authorities; and
(32) to secure a mortgage or loan for a rental housing
project by obtaining the appointment of receivers or assignments
of rents and profits under sections 559.17 and 576.01, except
that the limitation relating to the minimum amounts of the
original principal balances of mortgages specified in sections
559.17, subdivision 2, clause (2); and 576.01, subdivision 2,
does not apply; and
(33) to become members or shareholders in and enter into or
form limited partnerships, limited liability companies, or
corporations for the purpose of developing, constructing,
rehabilitating, managing, supporting, or preserving housing
projects and housing development projects, including low-income
housing tax credit projects. These limited partnerships,
limited liability companies, or corporations are subject to all
of the provisions of sections 469.001 to 469.047 and other laws
that apply to housing and redevelopment authorities, as if the
limited partnership, limited liability company, or corporation
were a housing and redevelopment authority.
Sec. 2. [EFFECTIVE DATE.]
Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment.
Presented to the governor May 13, 2003
Signed by the governor May 16, 2003, 4:01 p.m.
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes