North Carolina Redevelopment Commissions: A Guide to Urban Redevelopment Law

North Carolina’s Urban Redevelopment Law was enacted in 1951 after the federal Housing Act of 1949 made federal funds available to local governments for blight eradication and redevelopment. The Urban Redevelopment Law authorized local governments to create redevelopment commissions to leverage this funding. Even though that funding has all but dried up, new redevelopment commissions are still being created in North Carolina, and old commissions remain active to this day. Among other topics, this book addresses the question of why these entities persist.

One reason is that revitalization and redevelopment remain priorities for many local governments, even when federal funding is not on the table. Local governments are willing to use local funds to accomplish their blight-eradication and redevelopment goals. Another explanation is that redevelopment commissions are well-suited to the task of revitalizing and redeveloping distressed residential neighborhoods and commercial areas thanks to a collection of statutory tools. These powerful development tools, in combination with the commissions’ relative independence, enable commissions to work with communities to meet shared development objectives. 

While a redevelopment commission enjoys a fair amount of freedom, it remains accountable to its local government creators due to the fact that the commission can be abolished or absorbed into the local government at any time.