J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                       1585

notes, interim certificates, certificates of indebtedness, debentures or
other obligations.

(i) "Person" shall mean any individual, firm, partnership, corpo-
ration, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic;
and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other person
acting in similar representative capacity.

(j) "Municipality" shall mean the Mayor and City Council of
Laurel, a municipal corporation of this State.

2. Powers.

The municipality is hereby authorized and empowered to carry
out urban renewal projects which shall be limited to slum clearance
in slum or blighted areas and redevelopment or the rehabilitation
of slum or blighted areas; to acquire in connection with such projects,
within the corporate limits of the municipality, land and property of
every kind and any right, interest, franchise, easement or privilege
therein, including land or property and any right or interest therein
already devoted to public use, by purchase, lease, gift, condemnation
or any other legal means; to sell, lease, convey, transfer or otherwise
dispose of any of said land or property, regardless of whether or
not it has been developed, redeveloped, altered or improved and ir-
respective of the manner or means in or by which it may have been
acquired, to any private, public or quasi public corporation, partner-
ship, association, person or other legal entity. No land or property
taken by the municipality for any of the aforementioned purposes or
in connection with the exercise of any of the powers which by this
sub-heading are granted to the municipality by exercising the power
of eminent domain shall be taken without just compensation, as
agreed upon between the parties, or awarded by a jury, being first
paid or tendered to the party entitled to such compensation. All
land or property needed or taken by the exercise of the power of
eminent domain by the municipality for any of the aforementioned
purposes or in connection with the exercise of any of the powers
granted by this sub-heading is hereby declared to be needed or
taken for public uses and purposes. Any or all of the activities
authorized pursuant to this section shall constitute governmental
functions undertaken for public uses and purposes and the power
of taxation may be exercised, public funds expended and public
credit extended in furtherance thereof. The municipality is hereby
granted the following additional powers which are hereby found
and declared to be necessary and proper to carry into full force and
effect the specific powers hereinbefore granted and to fully ac-
complish the purposes and objects contemplated by the provisions
of this section:

(1) to make or have made all surveys and plans necessary to the
carrying out of the purposes of this sub-heading and to adopt or
approve, modify and amend such plans, which plans may include
but shall not be limited to: (i) plans for carrying out a program
of voluntary or compulsory repair and rehabilitation of buildings
and improvements, (ii) plans for the enforcement of codes and
regulations relating to the use of land and the use and occupancy
of buildings and improvements and to the compulsory repair, re-
habilitation, demolition, or removal of buildings and improvements;
and (iii) appraisals, title searches, surveys, studies, and other plans