2023 Tennessee Code › Title 7 - CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENTS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTIONS AND ENTITIES (§§ 7-1-101 — 7-91-104) › METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT (§§ 7-1-101 — 7-21-408) › Chapter 5 - METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENTS' PORT AUTHORITY ACT (§§ 7-5-101 — 7-5-113) › Section 7-5-103 - Chapter definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Authority" means a metropolitan port authority created pursuant to this chapter;
(2)
"Board" means the board of commissioners of an authority;
(3)
"Bonds" includes notes, interim certificates or other obligations of an authority;
(4)
"Contracting party" or "other contracting party" means any party to a sale contract, lease, or loan agreement except the authority;
(5)
"Creating municipality" means any city or county having a metropolitan form of government and having a population of not less than one hundred thousand (100,000), that creates an authority pursuant to this chapter;
(6)
"Enterprise" means the manufacturing, processing, assembling, and commercial service operations to be carried on with or otherwise using the facilities of a project;
(7)
"Executive officer" means the mayor, county mayor, or other chief executive officer of any creating municipality;
(8)
"Governing body" means the chief legislative body of any creating municipality;
(9)
"Lease" includes a lease containing an option to purchase the project for a nominal sum upon payment in full or provision for the purchase of all bonds issued in connection with the project and all interest on the bonds and all other expenses in connection with the project, and a lease containing an option to purchase the project at any time, as provided in the option, upon payment of the purchase price, which shall be sufficient to pay all bonds issued in connection with the project and all interest on the bonds and all other expenses incurred in connection with the project, but which payment may be made in the form of one (1) or more notes, debentures, bonds or other secured or unsecured debt obligations of the lessee providing for time payments, including, without limitation, interest on the notes, debentures, bonds or other secured or unsecured debt obligations sufficient for such purposes and delivered to the corporation or to the trustee under the indenture pursuant to which the bonds were issued;
(10)
"Loan agreement" means an agreement providing for an authority to loan the proceeds derived from the issuance of bonds pursuant to this chapter to one (1) or more contracting parties, to be used to pay the costs of one (1) or more projects and providing for the repayment of the loan by the other contracting party or parties, and which may provide for the loans to be secured or evidenced by one (1) or more notes, debentures, bonds or other secured or unsecured debt obligations of the contracting party or parties delivered to the authority or to the trustee under the indenture pursuant to which the bonds were issued;
(11)
"Metropolitan government" means the political entity created by consolidation of all, or substantially all, of the political and corporate functions of a county and a city or cities;
(12)
"Pollution" means the placing of any noxious or deleterious substances, including noise, in any air or water of or adjacent to the state of Tennessee or affecting the physical, chemical or biological properties of any air or waters of or adjacent to the state of Tennessee in a manner and to an extent that renders or is likely to render the air or waters inimical or harmful to the public health, safety or welfare, or to any animal, bird or aquatic life, or to the use of the air or waters for domestic, industrial, agricultural or recreational purposes;
(13)
"Pollution control facilities" means any equipment, structure or facility or any land and any building, structure, and facility or other improvement of any kind, or any combination thereof, and all real and personal property deemed necessary therewith having to do with or the end purpose of which is the control, abatement or prevention of water, air, noise or general environmental pollution, including, but not limited to, any air pollution control facility, noise abatement facility, water management facility, wastewater collecting systems, wastewater treatment works, or solid waste disposal facility;
(14)
"Port" means a terminal facility with all associated components necessary for the loading and unloading of goods and people involved in inland waterway transport and navigation;
(15)
(A)
"Project" means all or any part of, or any interest in:
(i)
Any land and building, including office building, and facility or other improvement on land, and all real and personal properties deemed necessary in connection therewith, whether or not now in existence, that shall be suitable for the following or by any combination of two (2) or more thereof:
(a)
Any industry for the manufacturing, processing or assembling of any agricultural, mining, or manufactured products; any commercial enterprise in selling, providing, or handling any financial service or in storing, warehousing, distributing or selling any products of agriculture, mining, or industry;
(b)
Any undertaking involving the use of ship canals, ports or port facilities, off-street parking facilities, docks or dock facilities, or harbor facilities, or of railroads, monorail or tramway, railway terminals, or railway belt lines and switches;
(c)
All or any part of any office building or buildings for the use of such tenant or tenants as may be determined or authorized by the board, including, without limitation, any industrial, commercial, financial or service enterprise, any nonprofit domestic corporation or enterprise now or hereafter organized, whose purpose is the promotion, support and encouragement of either agriculture or commerce in this state or whose purpose is the promoting of the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of the state;
(d)
Any office or other public building for any metropolitan government having a population of not less than one hundred thousand (100,000), or any board of public utilities, or any public authority, agency or instrumentality of the state of Tennessee or of the United States;
(e)
Any buildings, structures and facilities, including the site thereof, machinery, equipment and furnishings, suitable for use by any metropolitan government having a population of not less than one hundred thousand (100,000) as health care or related facilities, including, without limitation, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, research facilities, extended or long-term care facilities, and all buildings, structures and facilities deemed necessary or useful in connection therewith;
(f)
Any nonprofit educational institution in any manner related to or in furtherance of the educational purposes of such institution, including, but not limited to, classroom, laboratory, housing, administrative, physical education, and medical research and treatment facilities;
(g)
Any planetarium or museum; and
(h)
Any facilities for any recreation or amusement park, public park or theme park suitable for use by any private corporation or any governmental unit of the state of Tennessee, including the state of Tennessee;
(ii)
Not included are facilities designed for the sale or distribution to the public of electricity, gas, water or telephone or other services commonly classified as public utilities, except such as are specifically included in this subdivision (15)(A); and
(iii)
Any pollution control facilities that are suitable for use by any of the facilities listed in subdivision (15)(A)(i) or by any public utility whether publicly or privately owned, board of public utilities, public authority, or agency or instrumentality of the state of Tennessee or the United States, or by any combination of two (2) or more;
(B)
The board shall find with respect to any office building financed under this chapter that the acquisition and leasing or sale of such building, or the financing of the acquisition and leasing or sale by loan agreement, as the case may be, will develop trade and commerce in and adjacent to the municipality, will contribute to the general welfare and will alleviate conditions of unemployment, and such finding by the board shall be conclusive;
(16)
"Revenues" of a project, or derived from a project, include payments under a lease or sale contract and repayments under a loan agreement, or under notes, debentures, bonds and other secured or unsecured debt obligations of a lessee or contracting party delivered as provided in this chapter;
(17)
"Sale contract" means a contract providing for the sale of one (1) or more projects to one (1) or more contracting parties and includes a contract providing for payment of the purchase price in one (1) or more installments. If the sale contract permits title to the project to pass to the other contracting party or parties prior to payment in full of the entire purchase price, the sale contract shall also provide for the other contracting party or parties to deliver to the authority or to the trustee under the indenture pursuant to which the bonds were issued one (1) or more notes, debentures, bonds or other secured or unsecured debt obligations of such contracting party or parties providing for timely payments, including, without limitation, interest on the notes, debentures, bonds or other secured or unsecured debt obligations for the balance of the purchase price at or prior to the passage of such title; and
(18)
"State" means the state of Tennessee.
Impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 16, 36; Acts 1979, ch. 95, § 3; T.C.A., § 6-3752; Acts 2003, ch. 90, § 2.