HomeMy WebLinkAboutA027 - Legal Opinion dated Novemer 30, 2000 - City Attorney's Office
515 Clark Avenue,P.O.Box 811
Caring Pe le Ames,IA 50010
Quality Progran,.s Phone: 515-239-5146 •Fax: 515-239-5142
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November 30, 2000
The Honorable Ted Tedesco, Mayor
City of Ames, Iowa 50010
Re: Urban Revitalization, Areas that May be Lawfully Designated
Dear Mayor Tedesco:
This is in response to your question as to whether the Somerset Subdivision is an area that may be
lawfully designated as an Urban Revitalization Area. The answer is yes. The General Assembly has
amended the urban revitalization statute so as to allow the tax incentives for any area that is zoned
to allow some kind of housing to occur. Section 404.1, Code of Iowa, sets out five types of areas
that may be designated as an urban revitalization area. The first three clearly do not apply to new
development areas like Somerset. However, the fourth and fifth types do.
Section 401.1(4) allows urban revitalization designation for:
"An area which is appropriate as an economic development area as defined in Section
403.17."
Section 403.17 provides, in relevant part:
"`Economic development area' means an area of a municipality designated by the
local governing body as appropriate for commercial and industrial development,
public improvements related to housing and residential development,or construction
of housing and residential development for low and moderate income families,
including single and multifamily housing."
That basis pertains to urban revitalization Area No. 7 for which the Council,by Resolution 97-406
and 97-498,proposed and adopted a revitalization plan directed to"development on a neighborhood
scale of a commercial center with low and moderate income housing above the ground floor". The
provisions of the Development Agreement for Somerset approved by Council Resolution 97-150
provides for public improvements in Somerset that relate to housing and residential development.
Those actions of the Council are a designation of Urban Revitalization Area No.7 as appropriate for
commercial development, appropriate for public improvements related to housing and residential
development, and appropriate for construction of housing for low and moderate income families.
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Any one of those designations of appropriateness is, alone, a sufficient statutory basis for the
designation of Urban Revitalization Area 7. The fact that the amended revitalization plan for URA
#7 also provides tax incentives that are not restricted to housing for low and moderate income
persons does not make the urban revitalization area unlawful, because the designations of
appropriateness required by Sec. 403.17, Code of Iowa, have occurred.
Section 404.1(5),Code of Iowa,which was added to the statute in 1997,allows urban revitalization
designation for:
"An area designated as appropriate for public improvements related to housing and
residential development, or construction of housing and residential development."
That new wording has the effect of allowing an urban revitalization area on any land zoned in any
way that allows any kind of housing and residential development. Both the existing URA#7 and
the proposed new Somerset urban revitalization area have,by all the actions of the Council to adopt
residential zoning and a development plan for Somerset,been designated as an area appropriate for
various kinds of housing and residential development. Therefore, those places may be lawfully
designated as urban revitalization areas.
Yours truly,
John R. Klaus
City Attorney
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