AI-assisted research summary: A municipality must follow several steps before approving or carrying out an urban renewal plan, including declarations, review, a public hearing, and required findings.
Sec. 374.014. MUNICIPAL URBAN RENEWAL PLAN. (a) A municipality may not prepare an urban renewal plan for an area unless the governing body of the municipality has, by resolution, declared the area to be a slum area, a blighted area, or both, and has designated the area as appropriate for an urban renewal project. The governing body may not approve an urban renewal plan until a general plan has been prepared for the municipality. A municipality may not acquire real property for an urban renewal project until the governing body has approved the urban renewal plan as provided by Subsection (d). (b) Any person may submit an urban renewal plan to the municipality. The governing body, before approving the plan, must submit the proposed plan to the urban renewal agency and the planning commission, if any, for review and recommendations as to the plan's conformity with the general plan for municipal development. The urban renewal agency and the planning commission shall submit written recommendations relating to the proposed urban renewal plan to the governing body within 30 days after the date the plan is received for review. On receipt of those recommendations, the governing body shall hold a hearing relating to the proposed plan as provided by Subsection (c). If recommendations are not proposed within the 30-day period, the governing body may hold the hearing without recommendations. (c) The governing body must hold a public hearing on the proposed urban renewal plan before it may approve the urban renewal plan. The governing body shall publish notice of the hearing three times in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality. The first notice must be published before the 30th day before the date of the hearing. The notice must state the time, date, place, and purpose of the hearing, must generally identify the urban renewal area, and must describe the general scope of the urban renewal project under consideration. (d) After the hearing, the governing body may approve an urban renewal plan if the governing body finds that: (1) a feasible method exists for the relocation, in decent, safe, affordable, and sanitary accommodations, of families or individuals who will be displaced from the urban renewal area, without undue hardship to those persons; (2) the urban renewal plan conforms to the general plan for municipal development; and (3) the urban renewal plan offers the maximum opportunity, consistent with the needs of the municipality as a whole, for the rehabilitation or redevelopment of the urban renewal area by private enterprise. (e) An urban renewal plan may be modified at any time. If modified after the lease or sale by the municipality of real property within the urban renewal project area, the modification is subject to the rights at law or in equity of the lessee or purchaser, or that person's successor in interest. If a proposed modification affects the street layout, land use, public utilities, zoning, if any, open space, or density of the area, the modification may not be made until it is submitted to the planning commission and a report is made to the governing body as provided by Subsection (b). (f) After the municipality approves an urban renewal plan, the provisions of the plan that relate to the future use of the affected property and the building requirements applicable to the property control with respect to that property. (g) If a building in a good state of repair is located in an urban renewal area and may be incorporated into an urban renewal project pattern or plan for that area, the building may not be acquired without the consent of the owner. If the owner of property in an urban renewal area agrees to use the property in a manner that is consistent with the purposes of the urban renewal plan and if improvements to the property do not constitute a fire or health hazard, that property is not subject to the exercise of eminent domain authority. A property owner may contest before the governing body any exercise of eminent domain authority that affects that person's individual ownership and may appeal to the district court. The review on appeal is by trial de novo. Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.