(a) The findings and declarations made in § 13-20-209, with respect to slum, blighted, and deteriorated areas, are hereby affirmed and restated.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 13-20-301

  • Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
  • Business: means any lawful activity conducted primarily:
    (A) For the purchase, sale, lease and rental of personal and real property, and for the manufacturing, processing, or marketing of products, commodities, or any other personal property. See Tennessee Code 13-20-102
  • Cost of relocation: means the entire amount paid properly attributable to such relocation, after deducting therefrom any increase in the value of the new facility and any salvage value derived from the old facility. See Tennessee Code 13-20-302
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Relocation: means any horizontal or vertical movement of utility facilities intact and any protective measures taken or the construction of new or additional facilities, with or without contemporaneous removal and salvage of old facilities, including removal, readjustment, rerouting, or changing the grade of or alternating the construction of any public service facility, either temporarily or permanently, whether or not such relocation is made necessary by the closing of any highway, street, public alley or public right-of-way or the taking of easements whether publicly or privately owned. See Tennessee Code 13-20-302
  • State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 13-20-102
  • Utility: includes all utilities either public, private, or cooperatively owned which furnish utility service including, but not limited to, water, electric power, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, steam power, gas, and telephone or telegraph service, through a system of pipes, conduits, cables, or wires devoted to public utility service. See Tennessee Code 13-20-302
(b) Redevelopment and urban renewal project areas include streets, alleys, easements, and other public ways in, under, and over which utility facilities are installed. Public streets and alleys are intended for public travel and transportation; but they are also intended for proper utility uses in serving the public, as authorized by applicable laws of this state, and such utility usage is for the benefit of the public served. Without making use of public ways, utility lines could not reach or economically service the adjacent public, particularly in urban areas; and further:

(1) The business and activities of utilities involve the rendition of essential public services vital to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of this state;
(2) The development and existence of utilities directly and vitally affects the development, growth, and expansion of the general welfare, business and industry of this state; and
(3) All persons in this state are actual or potential customers of one (1) or more utility services, and all consumers will be affected by the cost of relocation of their facilities as necessary to accommodate redevelopment and urban renewal projects.
(c) The obligation of such utility relocation is a burden on the public of this state and it is, therefore, in the public interest that such burden be minimized consistent with the purpose of such redevelopment and urban renewal project; therefore, it is the intent of the general assembly to ensure that the police power of the state in requiring relocation of utilities be exercised in a responsible manner.
(d) The cost of utility relocation necessitated by redevelopment and urban renewal projects undertaken in accordance with §§ 13-20-101 – 13-20-215, and any amendments thereto, are properly a part of the cost of such projects, and it is in the public interest to provide for the equitable reimbursement of such cost of relocation; therefore, such relocation cost shall be included as part of the project costs of such redevelopment and urban renewal projects.
(e) The statements in this section are legislative determinations and declarations of public policy, and this part should be liberally construed in conformity with its declaration and provisions to promote the public interest.
  Previous section
Next section  
 Part 3 Contents