(a) A municipality or county shall not approve an urban redevelopment plan for an urban redevelopment area unless the governing body, by resolution, has determined such area to be a pocket of blight and designated such area as appropriate for an urban redevelopment project. Authority is vested in every municipality and county to prepare, to adopt, and to revise, from time to time, a general plan for the physical development of the municipality or county as a whole (giving due regard to the environs and metropolitan surroundings), to establish and maintain a planning commission for such purpose and related municipal and county planning activities, and to make available and to appropriate the necessary funds therefor. A municipality or county shall not acquire real property for an urban redevelopment project unless the local governing body has approved the urban redevelopment plan in accordance with subsection (d) of this Code section.

(b) The municipality or county may itself prepare or cause to be prepared an urban redevelopment plan; alternatively, any person or agency, public or private, may submit a plan to a municipality or county.

(c) The local governing body of the municipality or county shall hold or shall cause some agency of the municipality or county to hold a public hearing on an urban redevelopment plan or a substantial modification of an approved urban redevelopment plan, after public notice thereof by publication in a newspaper having a general circulation in the area of operation of the municipality or county. The notice shall describe the time, date, place, and purpose of the hearing, shall generally identify the urban redevelopment area covered by the plan, and shall outline the general scope of the urban redevelopment project under consideration.

(d) Following such hearing, the local governing body may approve an urban redevelopment plan if it finds that:

(1) A feasible method exists for the relocation of families who will be displaced from the urban redevelopment area in decent, safe, and sanitary dwelling accommodations within their means and without undue hardship to such families;

(2) The urban redevelopment plan conforms to the general plan of the municipality or county as a whole; and

(3) The urban redevelopment plan will afford maximum opportunity, consistent with the sound needs of the municipality or county as a whole, for the rehabilitation or redevelopment of the urban redevelopment area by private enterprise.

(e) An urban redevelopment plan may be modified at any time, provided that, if modified after the lease or sale by the municipality or county of real property in the urban redevelopment project area, such modification shall be subject to such rights at law or in equity as a lessee or purchaser or his or her successor or successors in interest may be entitled to assert. Any proposed modification which will substantially change the urban redevelopment plan as previously approved by the local governing body shall be subject to the requirements of this Code section, including the requirement of a public hearing, before it may be approved.

(f) Upon the approval of an urban redevelopment plan by a municipality or county, the provisions of the plan with respect to the future use and building requirements applicable to the property covered by the plan shall be controlling with respect thereto.