Section 24-1-23 Procedure for Incorporation of Authority; Boundaries of Authority; Denial of Petition for Incorporation; Resubmission of Petition After Denial.

Any 25 residents of a city or of the area within 10 miles from the territorial boundaries thereof may file a petition with the city clerk setting forth that there is a need for an authority to function in the city and the surrounding area. Upon the filing of such a petition the city clerk shall give notice of the time, place and purpose of a public hearing at which the council will determine the need for an authority in the city and surrounding area. Such notice shall be given at the city’s expense by publishing a notice, at least 10 days preceding the day on which the hearing is to be held, in a newspaper having a general circulation in the city and said surrounding area or, if there be no such newspaper, by posting such a notice in at least three public places within the city, at least 10 days preceding the day on which the hearing is to be held. Upon the date fixed for said hearing, held upon notice as provided in this section, an opportunity to be heard shall be granted to all residents and taxpayers of the city and surrounding area and to all other interested persons. After such a hearing, the council shall determine whether unsanitary or unsafe inhabited dwelling accommodations exist in the city and said surrounding area or whether there is a lack of safe or sanitary dwelling accommodations in the city and said surrounding area available for the inhabitants thereof. In determining whether dwelling accommodations are unsafe or unsanitary, the council shall take into consideration the following: The physical condition and age of the buildings; the degree of overcrowding; the percentage of land coverage; the light and air available to the inhabitants of such dwelling accommodations; the size and arrangement of the rooms; the sanitary facilities; and the extent to which conditions exist in such buildings which endanger life or property by fire or other causes. If it shall determine that either or both of the above enumerated conditions exist, the council shall adopt a resolution so finding, which need not go into any detail other than the mere finding. Such resolution may be adopted at the meeting at which it is introduced by a vote of a majority of the members of the council present at such meeting. Such resolution shall take effect immediately and shall not be laid over or published or posted. The council shall promptly notify the mayor who shall thereupon appoint, as provided in this article, five commissioners to act as an authority. Said commission shall be a public body and a body corporate and politic upon the completion of the following proceedings: The commissioners shall present to the Secretary of the State of Alabama, an application signed by them, which shall set forth, without any detail other than the mere recital, that a notice has been given and public hearing has been held as aforesaid, that the council made the aforesaid determination after such hearing and that the mayor has appointed them as commissioners; the name and official residence of each of the commissioners, together with a certified copy of the appointment evidencing their right to office, the date and place of their induction into and taking of the oath of office and their desire that the housing authority become a public body and a body corporate and politic under this article; the term of office of each of the commissioners and the place where, if any, the official appointment of each of said members is kept of record; the name which is proposed for the corporation; the location of the principal office of the proposed corporation; and any other matter relating to the incorporation which the commissioners might choose to insert not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State of Alabama. The application shall be subscribed and sworn to by each of said commissioners before an officer authorized by the laws of the State of Alabama to take and certify oaths, who shall certify upon the application that he personally knows the commissioners and knows them to be the officers as asserted in the application, and that each subscribed and swore thereto in the officer’s presence. The Secretary of State shall examine the application and if he finds that the name proposed for the corporation is not identical with that of a person or of any other corporation of the state or so nearly similar as to lead to confusion and uncertainty, he shall receive and file it and shall record it in an appropriate book of record in his office. When the application has been made, filed and recorded, as provided in this section, the authority shall constitute a public body and a body corporate and politic under the name proposed in the application. The Secretary of State shall make and issue to the said commissioners a certificate of incorporation pursuant to this article, under the seal of the state, and shall record the same with the application. The boundaries of such authority shall include said city and the area within 10 miles from the territorial boundaries of said city, but in no event shall it include the whole or a part of any other city nor any area included within the boundaries of another authority. In case an area lies within 10 miles of the boundaries of more than one city, such area shall be deemed to be within the boundaries of the authority embracing such area which was first established, all priorities to be determined on the basis of the time of the issuance of the aforesaid certificates by the Secretary of State. If the council, after a hearing as provided in this section, shall determine that neither of the above enumerated conditions exist, it shall adopt a resolution denying the petition. After three months shall have expired from the date of the denial of any such petition, subsequent petitions may be filed, as provided in this section, and new hearings and determinations made thereon. In any civil action or proceeding involving the validity or enforcement of, or relating to any contract of the authority, the authority shall be conclusively deemed to have been established in accordance with the provisions of this article upon proof of the issuance of the aforesaid certificate by the Secretary of State. A copy of such certificate, duly certified by the Secretary of State, shall be admissible in evidence in any such civil action or proceeding, and shall be conclusive proof of the filing and contents thereof. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as affecting the boundaries heretofore established for any housing authority.