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.