A redevelopment agency shall have all the powers necessary or convenient to undertake and carry out urban renewal plans and urban renewal projects, including the authority to acquire and dispose of property, to issue bonds and other obligations, to borrow and accept grants from the federal government or other source and to exercise the other powers which this chapter confers on a redevelopment agency with respect to redevelopment projects. In connection with the planning and undertaking of any urban renewal plan or urban renewal project, the redevelopment agency, the municipality and all public and private officers, agencies and bodies shall have all the rights, powers, privileges and immunities which they have with respect to a redevelopment plan or redevelopment project, in the same manner as though all of the provisions of this chapter applicable to a redevelopment plan or redevelopment project were applicable to an urban renewal plan or urban renewal project. In addition to the surveys and plans which a redevelopment agency is otherwise authorized to make, an agency is hereby specifically authorized to make (1) plans for carrying out a program of voluntary repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements and (2) plans for the enforcement of laws, codes and regulations relating to the use of land and the use and occupancy of buildings and improvements and to the compulsory repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal of buildings and improvements. The redevelopment agency is authorized to develop, test and report methods and techniques, and carry out demonstrations and other activities, for the prevention and the elimination of slums and urban blight.