2. Used or intended to be used for
residential purposes.
"Building" includes structures in which some floors may be
used for retail stores, shops, salesrooms, markets, or similar commercial uses,
or for offices, banks, civic administration activities, professional services,
or similar business or civic uses, and other floors are used, designed, or
intended to be used for residential purposes.
"Community catalyst" means a building or
buildings which, if remediated, would stimulate additional economic growth or
reinvestment in the community, especially private sector financial investment.
For purposes of this chapter, "economic growth" may include the creation of
additional jobs, growth of new or existing businesses, development of new
housing units, increased property values, or potential population growth. The
building will be located in an area central to the city's economic development
activities. A community catalyst project will be expected to have a significant
positive expected impact on the community.
"Costs directly related" means expenditures
that are incurred for acquisition, deconstruction, disposal, redevelopment, or
rehabilitation of a community catalyst to the extent that the expenditures are
attributable directly to the remediation or redevelopment of the community
catalyst. "Costs directly related" includes expenditures for site preparation
work, surveying, construction materials, construction labor, architectural
services, engineering services, building permits, building inspection fees, and
interest accrued on a construction loan during the time period allowed for
project completion under an agreement entered into pursuant to the program.
"Costs directly related" does not include expenditures for furnishings,
appliances, accounting services, legal services, loan origination and other
financing costs, syndication fees and related costs, developer fees, or the
costs associated with selling or renting the dwelling units whether incurred
before or after completion of the housing project.
"Director" means the director of the
authority.
"Financial assistance" means a grant or loan
made by the authority to an applicant approved for funding under the
program.
"Program" means the procedures, agreement,
terms, and assistance established and provided pursuant to this chapter.
"Project" means a proposed plan for the
remediation of underutilized buildings in a city. "Project" must include at
least one building but no more than two buildings. For two buildings to be
considered part of the same project, the buildings must be contiguous and under
the same ownership. All community catalyst buildings to be remediated must be
included in the proposed plan upon application, and the proposed plan must
demonstrate the steps and actions necessary to further remediation and
redevelopment efforts in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
"Public nuisance" means a building that is a
menace to the public health, welfare, or safety, or that is structurally
unsafe, unsanitary, or not provided with adequate safe egress, or that
constitutes a fire hazard, or is otherwise dangerous to human life, or that in
relation to the existing use constitutes a hazard to the public health,
welfare, or safety by reason of inadequate maintenance, dilapidation,
obsolescence, or abandonment. "Public nuisance" includes buildings with
blighting characteristics as defined by Iowa Code section 4032..
"Redevelopment" means development activities
associated with a project that are undertaken either for the purpose of
remediating underutilized buildings, for constructing new buildings or
improvements at a site where formerly existing buildings have been demolished,
or for rehabilitating, reusing or repurposing existing buildings or
improvements at a project site. "Redevelopment" typically includes projects
that result in the elimination of blighting characteristics as defined by Iowa
Code section 4032..
"Remediation" or
"remediating" means the redevelopment, repair, improvement,
rehabilitation, disposal, or deconstruction of at least one but no more than
two underutilized buildings at a site included in a project.
"Underutilized building" means a building
that is vacant or mostly vacant, is blighted or severely deteriorated, and
contains potential safety hazards including structural instability, code
noncompliance, vermin infestation, vandalism or potential for vandalism,
vagrancy, hazardous materials or generally unsafe or hazardous conditions. The
building may or may not be considered a public nuisance.
