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Terms Used In 12 Guam Code Ann. § 5102

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
(a) As used in this Article, unless it is otherwise provided or the context requires a different construction, application or meaning:

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(1) Authority means the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal
Authority referred to in § 5103.

(2) Federal Government means the United States of America or any department, agency or instrumentality, corporate or otherwise of the United States.

(3) Government of Guam means the body politic established by the Organic Act of Guam.

(4) Legislature means the Guam Legislature. (5) Governor means the Governor of Guam.
(6) Area of operation means the total geographical area within the boundaries of Guam.

(7) Slum area means an area in which there is a predominance of buildings or improvements, whether residential or nonresidential, 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, or the existence of any conditions which endanger life or property by fire or other causes, or any combination of such factors is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency or crime and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals or welfare.

(8) Blighted area means an area, other than a slum area, which by reason of the presence of a substantial number of deteriorated or deteriorating structures, predominance of defective or inadequate street layout, faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility or usefulness, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, deterioration of site or other improvements, diversity of ownership, defective or unusual conditions of title, improper subdivision or obsolete platting, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of such factors, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of a community, retards the provision of housing accommodations or constitutes an economic or social liability and is a menace to the public health, safety, morals or welfare in its present condition and use.

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(9) Urban renewal area means a slum area or a blighted area or a combination thereof which is designated as appropriate for an urban renewal project.

(10) Locality or community means any cohesive population area within the boundaries of Guam that would be commonly described as a city, town or village.

(11) Housing project means any work or undertaking or activity to provide decent, safe and sanitary urban or rural dwellings, apartments and other living accommodations for families of low income.

(A) Such work, undertaking or activity may include buildings, land, equipment, facilities, other real or personal property for necessary, convenient or desirable appurtenances, streets, sewers and other sanitary facilities and services, water supply, utilities, parks, site preparation, landscaping and administrative, community, health, recreational, welfare and similar facilities and services.

(B) The term also extends to the planning of buildings and improvements, the acquisition of property, the demolition of existing structures, the clearance of slum areas, the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of the improvements, and all other work in connection therewith, as well as to all other real or personal property and tangible or intangible assets held or used in connection with the housing project.

(12) Urban renewal project means undertakings and activities in an urban renewal area for the elimination and for the prevention of the development or spread of slums and blight, and may involve slum clearance and redevelopment in an urban renewal area, or rehabilitation or conservation in an urban renewal area, or any combination or part thereof in accordance with an urban renewal plan. Such undertakings and activities may include:

(A) Acquisition of a slum area or a blighted area or portion thereof;

(B) Demolition and removal of buildings and improvements;

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(C) Installation, construction or reconstruction of streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds and other improvements necessary for carrying out in the urban renewal area the urban renewal objectives of this Article in accordance with the urban renewal plan;

(D) Disposition of any property acquired in the urban renewal area, including sale, initial leasing or retention by the Authority itself, at its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan;

(E) Carrying out plans for a program of voluntary or compulsory repair and rehabilitation of buildings or other improvements in accordance with the urban renewal plan; and

(F) Acquisition of any other real property in the urban renewal area, where necessary, to eliminate unhealthful, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, lessen density, eliminate obsolete or other uses detrimental to the public welfare, or otherwise to remove or prevent the spread of blight or deterioration, or to provide land for needed public facilities.

(13) Project means a housing project or urban renewal project and extends to all properties, assets, cash or other funds, used, received or held in connection with the development or operation or disposition of a project or any portion of a project.

(14) Urban renewal plan means a plan, as it exists from time to time, for an urban renewal project, which plan:

(A) shall conform to the master plan for Guam, except as provided in § 5114; and

(B) shall be sufficiently complete to indicate such land acquisition, demolition and removal of structures, redevelopment, improvements and rehabilitation as may be proposed to be carried out in the urban renewal area, zoning and planning changes if any, land uses, maximum densities, building requirements, and the plan’s relationship to definite objectives of Guam respecting appropriate land uses, improved traffic, public transportation, public utilities, recreational and community facilities, and other public improvements.

(15) Real property or land, unless restricted meaning is clearly indicated, means all lands, including improvements and fixtures

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thereon, and appurtenances thereto, or used in connection therewith, and every estate, interest, right and use, legal or equitable, therein, including terms for years, and liens by way of mortgage, pledge, attachment, judgment or otherwise.

(16) Families of low income or low-income families means individuals or families who are in the lowest income group in a community, who cannot afford to pay enough to cause private enterprise in their community to build an adequate supply of decent, safe and sanitary housing for their use.

(17) Bonds means all bonds (including refunding bonds), notes, debentures and any other types or forms of instruments or obligation.

(16) Obligee of the Authority or obligee includes any bondholder, agents or trustees for any bondholders or lessor demising to the Authority property used in connection with a project, or any assignee or successor of any of these, and the Federal Government when it is a party to any contract with the Authority.

(17) Person means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, establishment, institution or organization, private or public, and includes persons acting in a representative or fiduciary capacity.

(18) Persons engaged in national defense activities means individuals in the Armed Forces of the United States; employees of the Department of Defense; and workers engaged or to be engaged in activities connected with national defense. The term also includes the families of the individuals, employees and workers who reside with them.

(19) Major disaster means any flood, drought, fire, typhoon, earthquake, storm or other catastrophe, natural or man-made including destruction due to enemy action in time of war which the Governor has determined to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant the use of available resources of the Federal Government and the government of Guam to alleviate the damage, hardship or suffering caused thereby.

(20) Public agency or agency means any department, bureau, instrumentality, authority or official body, corporate or otherwise, or

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any public official of the United States or of Guam, or of any state, commonwealth, territory or possession of the United States.

(b) To the extent to which any definition in this Section relates to, or is derived from the provisions of the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended, or the Housing Act of 1949, as amended, or the Housing Act of 1954, as amended, it shall be construed as intended to conform to those Acts, or to any future amendment of those Acts, as is intended to include the broadest scope authorized by those Acts.

SOURCE: GC § 13901.

2017 NOTE: Subitem designations added/altered pursuant to the authority of 1
GCA § 1606.