(a) The county executive for Montgomery County is hereby authorized and empowered to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of this article.
(b) Generally. To carry out public facility area development projects, which shall be limited to public facility areas.
(c) Acquisition of land and property. To acquire by purchase, gift, option, or any other legal means, excluding condemnation, land and property of every kind and any right, title, interest, franchise, easement, or privilege therein, for use in a public facility area development project.
(d) Plans and surveys. To make or have made all surveys and plans necessary to carry out the purposes of this article and to adopt or approve, modify and amend such plans, which plans may include but are not limited to: the identification of areas appropriate for public facility area development projects, and the preparation of public facility area plans.
(e) Sale, lease, etc., of property acquired. To sell, lease, convey, transfer or otherwise dispose of or retain any land or property acquired in a public facility area, regardless of whether or not it has been developed, redeveloped, altered or improved and irrespective of the manner or means in or by which it may have been acquired, to any private, public or quasi-public corporation, partnership, association, person or other legal entity. Prior to such disposition of land, a public facility area plan shall have been prepared. Any lease or rental agreement entered into pursuant to this article, for any of the purposes or objectives contemplated by this article, is hereby declared to be exclusively for business or commercial purposes and the fee, interest, rent, or charge reserved to be paid shall not be subject to redemption by the lessee, tenant or their successors in title, except to the extent and in the manner set forth in such lease agreement. Such property shall be subject to such covenants, conditions and restrictions, including covenants running with the land as the county council and county executive may deem to be necessary or desirable to promote the orderly development of Montgomery County or to otherwise carry out the purposes of this article. The purchasers or lessees and their successors and assigns shall be obligated to devote such real property only to the uses specified in the public facility area plan, and may be obligated to comply with such other requirements as the county council and county executive may determine to be in the public interest, including the obligation to begin within a reasonable time any improvements on such real property required by the public facility area plan. Such real property or interest therein shall be retained, sold, leased, or otherwise transferred at no less than its fair market value for uses in accordance with the public facility area plan. In determining the fair market value of real property for uses in accordance with the public facility area plan, consideration shall be given to the uses provided in such plan; the restrictions upon, and the covenants, conditions and obligations assumed by the purchaser or lessee or by the county retaining property; and the objectives of such plan for the promotion of orderly development. The conveyance to a private purchaser or lessee may provide that such purchaser or lessee shall be without power to sell, or encumber, or lease, or otherwise transfer the real property without the prior written consent of the county executive.
(f) Loans, grants, gifts, etc. To apply for and accept from the United States of America, the State of Maryland, or any department or agency thereof, or any other source, any loan, grant, gift, contribution, or aid of any kind.
(g) Other powers and procedures. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the powers and procedures for land acquisition, financing, including the levying of taxes and the issuance of bonds on the full faith and credit of the county, the construction of improvements, and land disposition shall be as defined and established in chapter 2 of the Montgomery County Code, 1965, and amended from time to time.
(h) Powers of other agencies. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed in any way to abrogate or curtail the powers of other public agencies or officers to select sites and to acquire and develop land in accordance with the provisions of the Annotated Code of Maryland or the Montgomery County Code. (1968, ch. 607, § 1; 1970, ch. 471, § 1.)
Editor's note-In connection with the above section see King v. Gleason, 32 Md. App. 151, 359 A.2d 245 (1976).
