58-513. Contracting public body; powers.

The contracting public body shall have all the powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of the Nebraska Redevelopment Act, including, but not limited to, the following powers:

(1) All authority, powers, and duties which such contracting public body has under other provisions of law unless specifically limited in the act;

(2) Within the designated blighted and substandard area to:

(a) Purchase, lease, obtain options upon, or acquire by gift, grant, bequest, devise, eminent domain, or otherwise any real property or personal property, or any interest therein, together with any improvements thereon, necessary or incidental to a redevelopment project, except that the power of eminent domain may be exercised only against nonpublic entities and individuals;

(b) Hold, improve, clear, or prepare for redevelopment any such property;

(c) Sell, lease for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years, exchange, transfer, assign, subdivide, retain for its own use, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, or otherwise encumber or dispose of any real property or personal property, or any interest therein;

(d) Enter into contracts with redevelopers of property containing covenants, restrictions, and conditions regarding the use of such property for residential, commercial, industrial, or recreational purposes or for public purposes in accordance with the project agreement and such other covenants, restrictions, and conditions as such contracting public body may deem necessary to eliminate or prevent a recurrence of blighted and substandard areas or to effectuate the purposes of the act;

(e) Make any of the covenants, restrictions, or conditions of such contract covenants running with the land and to provide appropriate remedies for any breach of any such covenants or conditions, including the right in such contracting public body to terminate such contracts and any interest in the property created;

(f) Borrow money, issue bonds, and provide security for loans or bonds;

(g) Establish a revolving loan fund;

(h) Insure or provide for the insurance of any real property or personal property or the operations of such contracting public body against any risks or hazards, including the power to pay premiums on any such insurance;

(i) Enter into any contracts necessary to effectuate the purposes of the act; and

(j) Provide grants, loans, or other means of financing to public or private persons in order to accomplish the rehabilitation, acquisition, or redevelopment in accordance with the project agreement. No statutory provision with respect to the acquisition, clearance, or disposition of property by other public bodies or taxing bodies shall restrict such contracting public body from exercising the powers under the act in such functions, unless the Legislature specifically states otherwise;

(3) To invest any funds held in reserves or sinking funds or any funds not required for immediate disbursement in property or securities in which savings banks or other banks may legally invest funds subject to their control. To redeem its bonds at the redemption price established therein or to purchase its bonds at less than redemption price, and such bonds redeemed or purchased shall be canceled;

(4) To borrow money and to apply for and accept advances, loans, grants, contributions, and any other form of financial assistance from the federal government, from the state, county, municipality, or other public body, or from any sources, public or private, including charitable funds, foundations, corporations, trusts, or requests, for the purposes of the act, to give such security as may be required, and to enter into and carry out contracts in connection with the act. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, to include in any contract for financial assistance with the federal government for a redevelopment project such conditions imposed pursuant to federal law as such contracting public body deems reasonable and appropriate and which are not inconsistent with the purposes of the act;

(5) Within the designated blighted and substandard area, to make or have made all surveys, appraisals, studies, and plans necessary to the carrying out of the purposes of the act and to contract or cooperate with any and all persons or agencies, public or private, in the making and carrying out of such surveys, appraisals, studies, and plans;

(6) To make such expenditures as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the act, and to make expenditures from funds obtained from the federal government without regard to any other laws pertaining to the making and approval of appropriations and expenditures;

(7) To annex all or any portion of the project area, whether such area is contiguous or not contiguous to the area of operation of the contracting public body if both the company and contracting public body agree to such annexation, except that (a) the annexing contracting public body shall comply with all other provisions of law relating to annexation generally applicable to a municipality of the class of the contracting public body, (b) the contracting public body shall not, in consequence of the annexation under this subdivision of any noncontiguous land, exercise the authority granted to it by statute to extend its jurisdiction beyond its corporate boundaries for purposes of planning, zoning, or subdivision development without the agreement of any city, village, or county currently exercising such jurisdiction over the area surrounding the annexed portion of the project area, and (c) the provisions of section 70-1008 shall apply to the annexation of any contiguous land by the contracting public body, but the annexation of any noncontiguous land undertaken pursuant to the act by a contracting public body shall not result in any change to the service area of any electric utility without the express agreement of the electric utility serving the annexed noncontiguous area at the time of annexation, except that at such time following the annexation of the noncontiguous area as the contracting public body lawfully annexes sufficient intervening territory so as to directly connect the noncontiguous area to the main body of the contracting public body, such noncontiguous area shall, solely for the purposes of section 70-1008, be treated as if it had been annexed by the contracting public body on the date upon which the connecting intervening territory had been formally annexed; and

(8) To exercise all or any part or combination of powers granted in the act.

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