Does the urban renewal statute let an Arkansas urban renewal agency demolish a building, and does the agency need to own it first?

Plain-English summary

Senator Trent Garner asked three questions about the powers of urban renewal agencies and housing authorities under Title 14, Chapter 169 of the Arkansas Code:

1. Does "clearance" in § 14-169-601 include "razing"? Yes. § 14-169-601(3) declares clearance, replanning, and rebuilding of blighted areas to be public uses. The agency's authority to "clear any areas acquired" (§ 14-169-604(4)) plainly includes demolishing buildings on those areas. The Housing Authorities Act, which urban renewal agencies operate under (§ 14-169-605(a)), defines a "housing project" to include work to "[d]emolish, clear, or remove buildings from any slum area" (§ 14-169-203(11)(A)(i)). The dictionary definition of "raze" is to "level to the ground; demolish."

2. Does "necessary or convenient" in § 14-169-705 include demolition or razing? Yes. § 14-169-705(a) gives urban renewal agencies "all the powers necessary or convenient to undertake and carry out urban renewal plans and urban renewal projects, including the authority to acquire and dispose of property." Sister provisions (§§ 14-169-703(a)(2)(b), 14-169-704(b)(2), 14-169-801(a)) explicitly contemplate demolition of acquired property. So "necessary or convenient" reaches razing.

3. Must an urban renewal agency acquire property before razing it? Yes. The opinion drew a hard distinction between cities and urban renewal agencies. Cities have independent demolition authority over dilapidated buildings under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-56-203 (and Springfield v. City of Little Rock upheld that police power). Urban renewal agencies do not. They are creatures of state statute, and the statute gives them razing power only over property they acquire. Acquisition is a prerequisite.

The follow-up to this opinion was Op. Att'y Gen. 2019-060 (also requested by Senator Garner), which asked whether an urban renewal agency could raze a city-condemned structure without acquiring it. The answer there was "only if acting in concert with the city under § 14-169-706," consistent with this opinion's principle that agencies have no independent demolition authority over property they do not own.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2019. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: What's the difference between an urban renewal agency and a housing authority?
A: They are statutorily related. Urban renewal agencies operate under § 14-169-605(a), which gives them "all the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities that a housing authority has" under the Housing Authorities Act. They are "separate and apart from the municipality in which it exists" (City of Fort Smith v. Housing Authority of City of Fort Smith, 256 Ark. 254, 506 S.W.2d 534 (1974)).

Q: What is a "blighted area" under the statute?
A: § 14-169-604(1) defines it as "areas, including slum areas, with buildings and improvements which ... are detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community."

Q: Can an urban renewal agency use eminent domain to acquire property?
A: That is implicit in the statute (§ 14-169-705(a) authorizes acquiring property), but the opinion does not address the procedural details of eminent-domain takings.

Q: What about a building that is dangerous before the agency has acquired it?
A: That's the city's lane. § 14-56-203 lets a city order razing of dilapidated structures. The follow-up opinion 2019-060 explored whether the urban renewal agency could partner with the city in such a case.

Q: Does the agency have to follow specific demolition procedures?
A: § 14-169-704(b)(2) requires that an urban renewal plan be "[s]ufficiently complete to indicate such land acquisition, demolition, and removal of structures ... as may be proposed to be carried out in the area of the urban renewal project." So demolition has to be planned and disclosed in the urban renewal plan, not done as a free-floating power.

Background and statutory framework

The Arkansas urban renewal scheme spreads across two subchapters:

• Subchapter 6 (§§ 14-169-601 et seq., redevelopment projects) authorizes housing authorities and urban renewal agencies to "carry out any work or undertaking to be called a 'redevelopment project.'" "Redevelopment activities" can be undertaken in blighted or deteriorating areas, with "clearance" listed among the public uses for which property may be acquired.

• Subchapter 7 (§§ 14-169-701 et seq., urban renewal projects) is broader. § 14-169-703(a)(1) authorizes both urban renewal agencies and housing authorities to plan and undertake urban renewal projects. § 14-169-703(a)(2)(b) explicitly contemplates "demolition, removal, or rehabilitation of buildings and improvements" within an urban renewal project. § 14-169-704(b)(2) requires the urban renewal plan to indicate such demolition. § 14-169-705(a) supplies the omnibus "necessary or convenient" power. § 14-169-801(a) reiterates that agencies "may acquire real property in the urban renewal area" and "demolish improvements on it."

The hard line is that all of this contemplates demolition of acquired property. The city, by contrast, has independent police-power demolition authority under § 14-56-203, upheld by Springfield v. City of Little Rock, 226 Ark. 462 (1956). The opinion preserves that distinction.

Citations

• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601 (redevelopment definitions and public uses)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-604 (redevelopment activities; clearance)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-605(a) (agency powers track housing authority powers)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-203(11)(A)(i) (housing project includes demolition)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-701(2); § 14-169-703(a)(1), (a)(2)(b); § 14-169-704(b)(2); § 14-169-705(a); § 14-169-709; § 14-169-801(a) (urban renewal projects)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-56-203 (city authority to raze)
• Springfield v. City of Little Rock, 226 Ark. 462, 290 S.W.2d 620 (1956)
• City of Fort Smith v. Housing Authority of City of Fort Smith, 256 Ark. 254, 506 S.W.2d 534 (1974)

Source

• Landing page: https://arkansasag.gov/divisions/opinions-foia/attorney-general-opinions-search/

Original opinion text

Opinion No. 2019-043
September 11, 2019

The Honorable Trent Garner
State Senator
P.O. Box 10487
El Dorado, AR 71730

Dear Senator Garner:

This is in response to your request for an opinion on the following questions:

1. As used in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601, can the term "clearance" mean or include "razing"?
2. As used in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-705, can the phrase "necessary or convenient" include the demolition or razing of properties?
3. Does Arkansas law require an urban renewal agency to acquire a property/structure before it can raze it?

RESPONSE

I take it that your questions are premised on the notion concerning the razing of property by a housing authority or an urban renewal agency as part of either entity's larger scope of the development and implementation of a redevelopment plan pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601 et seq., or an urban renewal project under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-701 et seq. With this understanding in mind, the answers to all three of your questions, in my opinion, are "yes." First, the word "clearance" in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601 can mean or include razing areas acquired by an urban renewal agency or housing authority for a redevelopment project. Second, the phrase "necessary or convenient" in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-705 can mean or include the demolition or razing of properties acquired for an urban renewal project. Third, an urban renewal agency is required to acquire property before it can raze it.

DISCUSSION

Question 1: As used in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601, can the term "clearance" mean or include "razing"?

Section 14-169-601 is part of a body of law that authorizes housing authorities and urban renewal agencies to "carry out any work or undertaking to be called a 'redevelopment project.'" "Redevelopment activities" may be undertaken in "blighted areas ... or areas that are in the process of becoming blighted." The "clearance" of these areas is among the "public uses and purposes" for which "private property [may be] acquired":

The clearance, replanning, and preparation for rebuilding of these areas and the prevention or the reduction of blight and its causes are public uses and purposes for which public money may be spent and private property acquired and are governmental functions of state concern.

The word "clearance" in section 14-169-601, therefore, relates to the power of housing authorities and urban renewal agencies to clear areas of real property (including blighted areas) they have acquired in connection with redevelopment projects. I believe "clearance" here can mean or include "razing," which generally means "[t]o level to the ground; demolish." In undertaking such projects, these entities "have all the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities that a housing authority has under the Housing Authorities Act...." That Act gives a housing authority the power to, among other things, carry out a "housing project," which is defined in part as "any work or undertaking to ... [d]emolish, clear, or remove buildings from any slum area."

Thus, when a housing authority or urban renewal agency "clear[s] any areas acquired" as part of a redevelopment project, that activity plainly can include razing, i.e., demolishing property.

Question 2: As used in Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-705, can the phrase "necessary or convenient" include the demolition or razing of properties?

Section 14-169-705 states that housing authorities and urban renewal agencies "shall have all the powers necessary or convenient to undertake and carry out urban renewal plans and urban renewal projects, including the authority to acquire and dispose of property...." As with redevelopment plans or projects under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-169-601 et seq., discussed above, these powers plainly include the "demolition" (or razing) of property acquired by the housing authority or urban renewal agency in the urban renewal project area.

The answer to this question is, therefore "yes" regarding properties acquired for an urban renewal project.

Question 3: Does Arkansas law require an urban renewal agency to acquire a property/structure before it can raze it?

Unlike cities, urban renewal agencies and housing authorities have not been granted the power to order the removal or razing of dilapidated, unsightly, or unsafe buildings on their own authority. Consequently, the answer to this question is "yes," an urban renewal agency must acquire a property or structure before it can raze it. See responses to Questions 1 and 2 (regarding authority to demolish property that has been acquired).

Sincerely,

LESLIE RUTLEDGE
Attorney General