§582.2. Declaration of purpose

A. The legislature hereby finds and declares that there exists in many cities of the state many predominately low and moderate-income residential areas wherein housing conditions have deteriorated to the extent that existing structures must be extensively restored or rehabilitated to make them safe and habitable or cannot be economically rehabilitated and therefore must be demolished thus leaving unimproved vacant lots.

B. The legislature hereby finds and declares that there exists in those same predominately low and moderate-income residential areas such extensive physical, economic, and social ills and such liabilities as will normally discourage investment in either costly renovation or building new or replacement housing.

C. The legislature hereby finds and declares that the existence of dilapidated or deteriorated structures or unused or unimproved vacant lots in such blighted neighborhoods contributes to the further decline of those areas, reduces the tax base, and typically requires greater infusions of tax-supported services to alleviate unsafe and unsanitary conditions and to protect the public health and welfare.

D. The legislature hereby finds and declares further that it is a matter of public policy and concern that the conditions and problems enumerated in this Section be eliminated, remedied, and prevented, and one such means of eliminating these blighted conditions and associated problems is through the granting of tax incentives to stimulate the restoration, renovation, or rehabilitation of existing structures and the construction of new housing in designated blighted residential areas.

E. The legislature hereby finds and declares further that the purpose of this Part is to offer sales tax refunds as an inducement to prospective builders for the restoration, renovation, or rehabilitation of existing structures and the construction of new and reasonably affordable housing generally affordable for ownership by low to moderate-income families and individuals on vacant or unused parcels of property in designated housing development areas as defined in this Part.

Acts 1984, No. 292, §1.