LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS; INTENT.

(a) The legislature finds that slum and blighted areas exist in municipalities in this state and that those areas:

(1) are a serious and growing menace that is injurious and inimical to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare of the residents of this state;

(2) contribute substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, requiring excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, and for crime prevention, correctional facilities, prosecution and punishment, treatment of juvenile delinquency, and the maintenance of adequate police, fire, and accident protection and other public services and facilities; and

(3) constitute an economic and social liability, substantially impair the sound growth of affected municipalities, and retard the provision of housing accommodations.

(b) For these reasons, prevention and elimination of slum and blighted areas are matters of state policy and concern that may be best addressed by the combined action of private enterprise, municipal regulation, and other public action through approved urban renewal plans. The legislature further finds that the repair and rehabilitation of buildings and other improvements in affected areas, public acquisition of real property, demolition of buildings and other improvements as necessary to eliminate slum or blight conditions or to prevent the spread of those conditions, the disposition of property acquired in affected areas and incidental to the purposes stated by this subsection, and other public assistance to eliminate those conditions are public purposes for which public money may be spent and the power of eminent domain exercised.

(c) It is the intent of the legislature that private enterprise be encouraged to participate in accomplishing the objectives of urban renewal to the extent of its capacity and with governmental assistance as provided by this chapter.