As used in this law, the following words and terms mean:
(1) "Authority" , a public body corporate and politic created by or pursuant to sections of this law or any other public body exercising the powers, rights and duties of such an authority;
(2) "Blighted area" , the same meaning as defined pursuant to section 99.805 ;
(3) "Bond" , any bonds, including refunding bonds, notes, interim certificates, debentures or other obligations issued by an authority pursuant to this law;
(4) "City" , all cities of this state now having or which hereafter have four hundred thousand inhabitants or more according to the last decennial census of the United States or any city that has adopted a home rule charter pursuant to Section 19 of Article VI of the Missouri Constitution;
(5) "Clerk" , the official custodian of records of the city;
(6) "Federal government" , the United States of America or any agency or instrumentality corporate or otherwise of the United States of America;
(7) "Governing body" , the city council, common council, board of aldermen or other legislative body charged with governing the municipality;
(8) "Industrial developer" , any person, partnership or public or private corporation or agency which enters or proposes to enter into an industrial development contract;
(9) "Industrial development" , the acquisition, clearance, grading, improving, preparing of land for industrial and commercial development and use and the construction, reconstruction, purchase, repair of industrial and commercial improvements, buildings, plants, additions, stores, shops, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and motels and parking garages, multi-family housing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, machines, fixtures, structures and other facilities relating to industrial and commercial use in blighted, insanitary or undeveloped industrial areas; and the existing merchants, residents, and present businesses shall have the first option to redevelop the area under this act;
(10) "Industrial development contract" , a contract entered into between an authority and an industrial developer for the industrial development of an area in conformity with a plan;
(11) "Insanitary area" , an area in which there is a predominance of buildings and improvements which, by reason of dilapidation, deterioration, age or obsolescence, inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation or open spaces, high density of population and overcrowding of buildings, overcrowding of land, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of such factors, is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency and crime or constitutes an economic or social liability and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals or welfare;
(12) "Obligee" , any bondholders, agents or trustees for any bondholders, lessor demising to the authority property used in connection with industrial clearance project, or any assignee or assignees of the lessor's interest or any part thereof, and the federal government when it is a party to any contract with the authority;
(13) "Person" , any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic; and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee or other similar representative thereof;
(14) "Plan" , a plan as it exists from time to time for the orderly carrying on of a project of industrial development;
(15) "Project" , any work or undertaking:
(a) To acquire blighted, insanitary and undeveloped industrial areas or portions thereof including lands, structures or improvements the acquisition of which is necessary or incidental to the proper industrial development of the blighted, insanitary and undeveloped industrial areas or to prevent the spread or recurrence of conditions of blight, insanitary or undevelopment;
(b) To clear any such areas by demolition or removal of existing buildings, structures, streets, utilities or other improvements thereon and to install, construct or reconstruct streets, utilities and site improvements essential to the preparation of sites for uses in accordance with a plan;
(c) To construct, reconstruct, remodel, repair, improve, install improvements, buildings, plants, additions, stores, shops, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and motels and parking garages, multi-family housing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, machines, fixtures, structures and other facilities related to industrial and commercial uses;
(d) To sell, lease or otherwise make available land in such areas for industrial and commercial or related use or to retain such land for public use, in accordance with a plan;
(16) "Public body" , the state or any municipality, county, township, board, commission, authority, district or any other subdivision of the state;
(17) "Real property" , all lands, including improvements and fixtures thereon, and property of any nature appurtenant thereto, or used in connection therewith, and every estate, interest and right, legal or equitable, therein, including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise and the indebtedness secured by such liens;
(18) "Undeveloped industrial area" , any area which, by reason of defective and inadequate street layout or location of physical improvements, obsolescence and inadequate subdivision and platting contains vacant parcels of land not used economically; contains old, decaying, obsolete buildings, plants, stores, shops, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and motels and parking garages, warehouses, distribution centers, structures; contains buildings, plants, stores, shops, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and motels and parking garages, multi-family housing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers and structures whose operation is not economically feasible; contains intermittent commercial and industrial structures in a primarily industrial or commercial area; or contains insufficient space for the expansion and efficient use of land for industrial plants and commercial uses amounting to conditions which retard economic or social growth, are economic waste and social liabilities and represent an inability to pay reasonable taxes to the detriment and injury of the public health, safety, morals and welfare.