(315 ILCS 5/2) (from Ch. 67 1/2, par. 64)
Sec. 2.
It is hereby found and declared (a) that there exist in many urban
communities within this State slum and blighted areas, as defined herein;
(b) that such slum and blighted areas contribute to the development and
cause an increase in and spread of disease, crime, infant mortality and
juvenile delinquency, and constitute a menace to the health, safety, morals
and welfare of the residents of the State; that these conditions
necessitate excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public fund for
crime prevention and punishment, public health and safety, fire and
accident protection, and other public services and facilities and
constitute a drain upon the public revenue and continue to impair the
efficient, economical and indispensable governmental functions of the
municipalities embracing such areas, as well as of the State; and (c) that
in order to promote and protect the health, safety, morals and welfare of
the public it is necessary to provide for the eradication and elimination
of slum and blighted areas and the construction of redevelopment projects
thereon, and that the eradication and elimination of such areas and the
construction of redevelopment projects financed by private capital, with
limited financial assistance from governmental bodies, in the manner
provided in this Act are hereby declared to be a public use essential to
the public interest.
It is also found and declared (a) that there exist in many communities
within this State areas of platted or unplatted land which are
predominantly open and which, by reason of obsolete platting, diversity of
ownership, deterioration of structures or site improvements, or taxes and
special assessment delinquencies usually exceeding the fair value of the
land, are unmarketable in fact for housing or other economic purposes, and
which otherwise substantially impair or arrest the sound growth of
communities; (b) that the inability to market and develop such
predominantly open areas constitutes a blight upon communities by
preventing the construction of critically needed residential housing or
other appropriate development; (c) that the retardation of housing and
other essential community development and redevelopment projects is a
direct and immediate result of such blighted vacant areas and that the
existence of such areas constitutes a menace to the public health, safety,
welfare and morals by promoting the creation and continuation of slum and
blighted areas, as herein defined, with their attendant evils of disease,
crime, infant mortality and juvenile delinquency; (d) that in order to
promote and protect the health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents
of this State, it is essential that such open areas be made available for
development for residential or other use; and (e) that the acquisition of
such predominantly open land and the development or redevelopment thereof
by private capital, with limited financial assistance from governmental
bodies, in the manner provided by this Act, is hereby declared to be a
public use essential to the public interest.
It is also found and declared (a) that the development and redevelopment
of urban communities is best served by making such slum and blighted areas
and blighted vacant areas available for redevelopment for any use for which
the land is suited, public or private, by bodies politic and corporate,
public corporations, or other public bodies, or any private interests, and
(b) the eradication and elimination of slum and blighted areas and the
acquisition of blighted vacant areas and the development or redevelopment
thereof by public bodies or private interests for any appropriate use,
public or private, consistent with the general plan for the municipality,
in the manner provided in this Act, is hereby declared to be a public use
essential to the public interest.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 3800.)
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