GA Code § 36-61-10 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 36 - Local Government|Chapter 61 - Urban Redevelopment|§ 36-61-10. Disposal of Property in Redevelopment Area Generally; Notice and Bidding Procedures; Exchange With Veterans' Organization; Temporary Operation of Property

  A municipality or county may sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property in an urban redevelopment area or any interest therein acquired by it and may enter into contracts with respect thereto, for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, or other uses or for public use; or the municipality or county may retain such property or interest for public use, in accordance with the urban redevelopment plan, subject to such covenants, conditions, and restrictions, including covenants running with the land and including the incorporation by reference therein of the provisions of an urban redevelopment plan or any part thereof, as it may deem to be in the public interest or necessary or desirable to assist in preventing the development or spread of future pockets of blight or to otherwise carry out the purposes of this chapter. Such sale, lease, other transfer, or retention and any agreement relating thereto may be made only after the approval of the urban redevelopment plan by the local governing body. The purchasers or lessees and their successors and assigns shall be obligated to devote such real property only to the uses specified in the urban redevelopment plan and may be obligated to comply with such other requirements as the municipality or county may determine 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 redevelopment plan. Such real property or interest shall be sold, leased, otherwise transferred, or retained at not less than its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban redevelopment plan. In determining the fair value of real property for uses in accordance with the urban redevelopment plan, a municipality or county shall take into account and give consideration to the uses provided in such plan; the restrictions upon and the covenants, conditions, and obligations assumed by the purchaser or lessee or by the municipality or county retaining the property; and the objectives of such plan for the prevention of the recurrence of pockets of blight. The municipality or county in any instrument of conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee may provide that such purchaser or lessee shall be without power to sell, lease, or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written consent of the municipality or county until he or she has completed the construction of any and all improvements which he or she has obligated himself or herself to construct thereon. Real property acquired by a municipality or county which, in accordance with the provisions of the urban redevelopment 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 redevelopment plan. The inclusion in any such contract or conveyance to a purchaser or lessee of any such covenants, restrictions, or conditions, including the incorporation by reference therein of the provisions of an urban redevelopment plan or any part thereof, shall not prevent the filing of the contract or conveyance in the land records of the county in such manner as to afford actual or constructive notice thereof.     A municipality or county may dispose of real property in an urban redevelopment area to private persons only under such reasonable competitive bidding procedures as it shall prescribe, as are provided in this subsection or, solely with respect to and for the benefit of advancing surface transportation projects, as provided in Code Section 36-61-4. A municipality or county, by public notice by publication once each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper having a general circulation in the community, prior to the execution of any contract to sell, lease, or otherwise transfer real property and prior to the delivery of any instrument of conveyance with respect thereto under this Code section, may invite proposals from and make available all pertinent information to private redevelopers or any persons interested in undertaking to redevelop or rehabilitate an urban redevelopment area or any part thereof. The notice shall identify the area or portion thereof and shall state that such further information as is available may be obtained at such office as shall be designated in the notice. The municipality or county shall consider all such redevelopment or rehabilitation proposals and the financial and legal ability of the persons making such proposals to carry them out and may negotiate with any persons for proposals for the purchase, lease, or other transfer of any real property acquired by the municipality or county in the urban redevelopment area. The municipality or county may accept such proposal as it deems to be in the public interest and in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter. The municipality or county may execute contracts in accordance with subsection (a) of this Code section and deliver deeds, leases, and other instruments and take all steps necessary to effectuate such contracts.   Notwithstanding the provisions or requirements of this Code section, any municipality or county may exchange real property or land, whether vacant or improved, in any urban redevelopment area for real property or land, whether vacant or improved, owned by any post, barracks, encampment, chapter, subsidiary, or any other division or unit of any veterans' organization chartered by the United States Congress, provided such real property or land was owned by the veterans' organization on March 6, 1962, and, provided, further, that the municipality or county owning such urban redevelopment area desires to obtain the real property or land owned by the veterans' organization for civic improvements, including, but not limited to, the building of art theaters, stadiums, parks, playgrounds, auditoriums, civic theaters, and performing arts theaters.     A municipality or county may temporarily operate and maintain real property acquired in an urban redevelopment area, pending the disposition of the property for redevelopment, without regard to subsection (a) of this Code section, for such uses and purposes as may be deemed desirable, even if such uses and purposes are not in conformity with the urban redevelopment plan.    (Ga. L. 1955, p. 354, § 9; Ga. L. 1962, p. 702, § 1; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1318, § 7/HB 174; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1329, § 5/SB 4.)   OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL   Repair or disposal of dwellings outside redevelopment area.   - Municipality may acquire, rehabilitate, and dispose of substandard residential dwellings to the housing authority when such dwellings are outside an officially declared urban redevelopment area, if such activities are designed to provide low-rent housing to persons displaced by activities within such area. 1982 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U82-28.   RESEARCH REFERENCES   C.J.S.   - 39A C.J.S., Health and Environment, § 58 et seq. 63 C.J.S., Municipal Corporations, § 873 et seq.   ALR.    - Sufficiency of compliance with condition of sale or lease by municipality of public utility plants, 52 A.L.R. 1052.    Application of Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469, 125 S. Ct. 2655, 162 L. Ed. 2d 439 (2005), to "Public Use" restrictions in federal and state constitutions takings clauses and eminent domain statutes, 21 A.L.R.6th 261.