(a) “Agency” or “urban renewal agency” shall mean a public agency created by Section 43-35-33 of this article.

(b) “Municipality” shall mean any incorporated city or town or county in the state.

(c) “Public body” shall mean the state or any municipality, township, village, board, commission, authority, district, or any other subdivision or public body of the state.

(d) “Local governing body” shall mean the council or other legislative body charged with governing the municipality.

(e) “Mayor” shall mean the mayor of a municipality or other officer or body having the duties customarily imposed upon the executive head of a municipality.

(f) “Clerk” shall mean the clerk or other official of the municipality who is the custodian of the official records of such municipality.

(g) “Federal government” shall include the United States of America or any agency or instrumentality, corporate or otherwise, of the United States of America.

(h) “Slum area” shall mean an area in which there is a predominance of buildings or improvements, whether residential or nonresidential, which by reason of dilapidation, deterioration, age or obsolescence, inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation, or open spaces, high density of population and overcrowding, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of such factors is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, or crime, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals or welfare.

(i) “Blighted area” shall mean an area which by reason of the presence of a substantial number of slum, deteriorated or deteriorating structures, predominance of defective or inadequate street layout, faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility or usefulness, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, deterioration of site or other improvements, diversity of ownership, tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land, defective or unusual conditions of title, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of such factors, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of a municipality, retards the provision of housing accommodations or constitutes an economic or social liability and is a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in its present condition and use. If such blighted area consists of open land the conditions contained in the proviso in subsection (d) of Section 43-35-13 shall apply. Any disaster area referred to in subsection (g) of Section 43-35-13 shall constitute a “blighted area.”

(j) “Urban renewal project” may include undertakings and activities of a municipality in an urban renewal area for the elimination and for the prevention of the development or spread of slums and blight, and may involve slum clearance and redevelopment in an urban renewal area, or rehabilitation or conservation in an urban renewal area, or any combination or part thereof in accordance with an urban renewal plan.

Such undertakings and activities may include:

(1) acquisition of a slum area or a blighted area or portion thereof;

(2) demolition and removal of buildings and improvements;

(3) installation, construction, or reconstruction of streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds, and other improvements necessary for carrying out in the urban renewal area the urban renewal objectives of this article in accordance with the urban renewal plan;

(4) disposition of any property acquired in the urban renewal area (including sale, initial leasing or retention by the municipality itself) at its fair value for uses in accordance with the urban renewal plan;

(5) carrying out plans for a program of voluntary or compulsory repair and rehabilitation of buildings or other improvements in accordance with the urban renewal plan; and

(6) acquisition of any other real property in the urban renewal area where necessary to eliminate unhealthful, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, lessen density, eliminate obsolete or other uses detrimental to the public welfare, or otherwise to remove or prevent the spread of blight or deterioration, or to provide land for needed public facilities.

(k) “Urban renewal area” means a slum area or a blighted area or a combination thereof which the local governing body designates as appropriate for an urban renewal project.

(l) “Urban renewal plan” means a plan, as it exists from time to time, for an urban renewal project, which plan (1) shall conform to the general plan for the municipality as a whole except as provided in subsection (g) of Section 43-35-13; and (2) shall be sufficiently complete to indicate such land acquisition, demolition and removal of structures, redevelopment, improvements, and rehabilitation as may be proposed to be carried out in the urban renewal area, zoning and planning changes, if any, land uses, maximum densities, building requirements, and the plan’s relationship to definite local objectives respecting appropriate land uses, improved traffic, public transportation, public utilities, recreational and community facilities, and other public improvements.

(m) “Real property” shall include all lands, including improvements and fixtures thereon, and property of any nature appurtenant thereto, or used in connection therewith, and every estate, interest, right and use, legal or equitable, therein, including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise.

(n) “Bonds” shall mean any bonds (including refunding bonds), notes, interim certificates, certificates of indebtedness, debentures or other obligations.

(o) “Obligee” shall include any bondholder, agents or trustees for any bondholders, or lessor demising to the municipality property used in connection with an urban renewal project, or any assignee or assignees of such lessor’s interest or any part thereof, and the federal government when it is a party to any contract with the municipality.

(p) “Person” shall mean any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic; and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other person acting in a similar representative capacity.

(q) “Area of operation” shall mean the area within the corporate limits of the municipality and the area within five (5) miles of such limits, except that it shall not include any area which lies within the territorial boundaries of another incorporated city or town unless a resolution shall have been adopted by the governing body of such other city or town declaring a need therefor.

(r) “Housing authority” shall mean a housing authority created by and established pursuant to Sections 43-33-1 through 43-33-53, Mississippi Code of 1972.

(s) “Board” or “commission” shall mean a board, commission, department, division, office, body or other unit of the municipality.

(t) “Public officer” shall mean any officer who is in charge of any department or branch of the government of the municipality relating to health, fire, building regulations, or to other activities concerning dwellings in the municipality.