CODE OF VIRGINIA

REDEVELOPMENT PLANS (§ 36-51)

A. An authority shall not implement any redevelopment plan under this law until
the governing body of the locality has approved the redevelopment plan, which
provides an outline for the development or redevelopment of the redevelopment
area and is sufficiently complete to indicate (i) its relationship to definite
local objectives as to appropriate land uses and improved traffic, public
transportation, public utilities, recreational and community facilities and
other public improvements; (ii) proposed land uses and building requirements in
the redevelopment area; (iii) the land in the redevelopment area that the
authority does not intend to acquire; (iv) the land in the redevelopment area
that will be made available after acquisition to nongovernmental persons or
entities for redevelopment and that land which will be made available after
acquisition to public enterprise for redevelopment; (v) anticipated funding
sources that may be sufficient to acquire all property designated for
acquisition within five years of the locality’s approval; and (vi) the
method for the temporary relocation of persons living in the redevelopment
areas; and also the method for providing (unless already available) decent, safe
and sanitary dwellings in the locality substantially equal in number to the
number of substandard dwellings to be cleared from the redevelopment area, at
rents within the financial reach of the income groups displaced from such
substandard dwellings. Any locality is hereby authorized to approve
redevelopment plans through their governing body or agency designated for that
purpose.

B. No sooner than thirty months or later than thirty-six months following the
date of the locality’s approval of the redevelopment plan (hereinafter
called the “approval date”), the locality shall review and determine
by resolution whether to reaffirm the redevelopment plan. Where the locality
fails to reaffirm the redevelopment plan, any real property within the
redevelopment area that has not been acquired by the authority, or for which a
petition in condemnation has not been filed by the authority, prior to the date
of adoption of such resolution by the locality (hereinafter called the
“termination date”) shall no longer be eligible for acquisition by
the authority unless the authority and the property owner mutually agree to the
acquisition, in which case the authority shall be specifically empowered to
acquire the property. For purposes of this section, a mediation request
submitted by either the authority or the property owner, in accordance with §
36-27, prior to the termination date shall preserve the authority’s right
to file a petition in condemnation relating to such real property for a period
of six months after the termination date.

C. Where the locality reaffirms the redevelopment plan, the authority shall
continue to be authorized to acquire real property within the redevelopment area
by purchase, or through the institution of eminent domain proceedings in
accordance with § 36-27, until the fifth anniversary of the approval date. Any
real property within the redevelopment area that has not been acquired by the
authority, or for which a petition in condemnation has not been filed by the
authority, prior to the fifth anniversary of the approval date, shall no longer
be eligible for acquisition by the authority unless the authority and the
property owner mutually agree to the acquisition, in which case the authority
shall be specifically empowered to acquire the property. For purposes of this
section, a mediation request submitted by either the authority or the property
owner, in accordance with § 36-27, prior to the fifth anniversary of the
approval date, shall preserve the authority’s right to file a petition in
condemnation relating to the real property for a period of six months after the
fifth anniversary of the approval date.

D. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a locality shall not be
precluded from adopting a new redevelopment plan, in accordance with this
section, which designates a redevelopment area that includes real property that
was previously included within a redevelopment area under a previously adopted
redevelopment plan.

E. If the authority decides against acquiring real property designated for
acquisition under an approved redevelopment plan after having made a written
purchase offer to the owner of the property, it shall, upon the written request
of the property owner given no later than one year after the date of written
notice from the authority to the property owner of its decision not to acquire
his property, reimburse the owner of the property his reasonable expenses
incurred in connection with the proposed acquisition of his property. Reasonable
expenses shall include, but are not limited to, reasonable fees of attorneys and
appraisers or other experts necessary to establish the value of the property to
be appraised.

HISTORY: 1946, p. 279; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 3145(8d); 2001, c. 729; 2006, c.
784.