§ 40-58-06 — Preparation, adoption, and revision of development or renewal plans

1. A municipality may not approve a development or renewal plan for a development or
renewal area unless the governing body by resolution determines that the area is a
slum or blighted area or consists of industrial or commercial property, or a combination
of those areas or properties, and designates the area or properties as appropriate for a
development or renewal project. The local governing body may not approve a
development or renewal plan until a general plan for the municipality is prepared. For
this purpose and other municipal purposes, a municipality may prepare, adopt, and
revise a general plan for the physical development of the municipality as a whole
giving due regard to the environs and metropolitan surroundings, establish and
maintain a planning commission for this purpose and related municipal planning
activities, and make available and appropriate necessary funds for these purposes. A
municipality may not acquire real property for a development or renewal project unless
the governing body approves the development or renewal plan in accordance with
subsection 4.
2. The municipality may prepare or cause to be prepared a development or renewal plan,
or any person or agency, public or private, may submit a development or renewal plan
to a municipality. Prior to its approval of a development or renewal plan, the governing
body shall submit the plan to the planning commission of the municipality, if any, for
review and recommendations as to its conformity with the general plan for the
development of the municipality as a whole. However, if the development or renewal
plan relates only to proposed development of industrial or commercial property, the
governing body is not required to submit the plan to the planning commission unless
the proposed development is not consistent with the comprehensive city plan. The
planning commission shall submit its written recommendations with respect to the
proposed development or renewal plan to the governing body within thirty days after
receipt of the plan for review. Upon receipt of the recommendations of the planning
commission, or if no recommendations are received within the thirty-day period, the

governing body may proceed with the hearing on the proposed development or
renewal plan prescribed by subsection 3.
3. The governing body shall hold a public hearing on a development or renewal plan or
substantial modification of an approved plan, after public notice of the hearing is
provided by publication in a newspaper having a general circulation in the area of
operation of the municipality. The notice must describe the time, date, place, and
purpose of the hearing, generally identify the development or renewal area covered by
the plan, and outline the general scope of the development or renewal project under
consideration.
4. Following the hearing, the governing body may approve a development or renewal
plan if it finds that:
a. A feasible method exists for the location of families who will be displaced from the
development or renewal area in decent, safe, and sanitary dwelling
accommodations within their means and without undue hardship to those
families;
b. The development or renewal plan conforms to the general plan of the municipality
as a whole; and
c. The development or renewal plan will afford maximum opportunity, consistent
with the sound needs of the municipality as a whole, for the development,
rehabilitation, or redevelopment of the development or renewal area by private
enterprise.
5. A development or renewal plan may be modified at any time; provided, that if modified
after the lease or sale by the municipality of real property in the development or
renewal project area, the modification is subject to the rights at law or in equity as a
lessee or purchaser, or the lessee's or purchaser's successor or successors in
interest, is entitled to assert. Any proposed modification which will substantially change
the development or renewal plan as previously approved by the governing body is
subject to the requirements of this section, including the requirement of a public
hearing, before it may be approved.
6. Upon the approval of a development or renewal plan by the municipality, the provisions
of the plan governing the future use and building requirements applicable to the
property covered by the plan control the future use of and building on the property.