2006 Minnesota Statutes

469.058 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT DISTRICTS.
    Subdivision 1. Creation; notice; findings. A port authority may create and define the
boundaries of industrial development districts in their port districts after holding a public hearing
on the matter. At least ten days before the hearing, the authority shall publish notice of the hearing
in a daily newspaper of general circulation in the port district. The development district may be
created if the authority finds that a development district is proper and desirable to establish and
develop a system of harbor and river improvements and industrial developments in its port district.
In this section, "development" includes redevelopment, and "developing" includes redeveloping.
    Subd. 2. Policy. It is state policy in the public interest to have a port authority exercise the
power of eminent domain, and advance and spend public money for the purposes in sections
469.048 to 469.068, and to provide the means to develop marginal property according to the
findings in subdivision 3.
    Subd. 3. Findings. The legislature makes the findings in this subdivision about the purposes
of this section.
(a) Sound development of the economic security of the people in port authority cities
depends on proper development of marginal property. The general welfare of the residents of port
districts requires remedies for the injurious conditions of marginal property by appropriate means.
(b) Marginal property cannot be developed without public participation and assistance in:
(1) acquiring land, (2) planning, (3) financing of land assembly in the work of clearance and
development, and (4) making necessary improvements for developing.
When the development of marginal property cannot be done by private enterprise alone, it
is in the public interest to exercise the power of eminent domain, to advance and spend public
money, and to provide the means to develop marginal property.
(c) The decline of marginal lands often cannot be reversed except by developing all or most
of those lands. Private development may be uneconomic and practically impossible because of
costs and lack of legal power. The public may have to acquire sizable areas of marginal property
at fair prices to remedy the conditions on the marginal property, and to develop the areas under
proper supervision, with appropriate planning and continuing land use. The development of land
acquired under sections 469.048 to 469.068 is a public necessity and use and a governmental
function. The sale or lease of the land after development is incidental to the real purpose: to
remove the condition making the property marginal.
(d) The development of marginal property and its continuing use are public uses, public
purposes, and government functions that justify spending or advancing public money and
acquiring private property. The development is a state concern in the interest of health, safety, and
welfare of the people of the state and of all residents and property owners in communities having
marginal property. Marginal property causes problems beyond control of police power alone.
History: 1987 c 291 s 59