Tenn. Code Ann. § 13-20-202 (2026)

• (a) Any housing authority now or hereafter established under and pursuant to this chapter, including any municipal housing authority whether created under and pursuant to such law or of any special statute, may carry out any undertaking hereinafter called a "redevelopment project" and to that end may:
  • (1) Acquire blighted areas;
  • (2) Acquire other real property for the purpose of removing, preventing, or reducing blight, blighting factors, or the causes of blight;
  • (3) Acquire real property where the condition of the title, the diverse ownership of the real property to be assembled, the street or lot layouts, or other conditions, prevent a proper development of the property and where the acquisition of the area by the authority is necessary to carry out a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
  • (4) Acting on its own or through third parties engaged to act on the housing authority's behalf:
    • (A) Clear any areas acquired, including relocation of utility facilities and demolition, in whole or in part, of buildings and improvements thereon and removal or remediation of any environmental contamination;
    • (B) Install, construct, or reconstruct streets, utilities, and site improvements essential to the preparation and development of sites for uses in accordance with a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
    • (C) Install, construct, or reconstruct parks, public open spaces, public playgrounds, pedestrian ways and all parking structures regardless of use in accordance with a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
    • (D) Pay expenses for relocation, administrative costs, planning and engineering costs, energy efficiency costs and legal expenses associated with exercising the powers granted in this section or with carrying out a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
    • (E) Pay the design costs, commissioning costs and fees and costs of required documentation associated with meeting the requirements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Green Globes or other similar programs, as well as greening costs and energy modeling costs for certification by such programs of new construction, existing buildings and other projects;
    • (F) Install, construct, add to, improve or reconstruct public infrastructure, including, but not limited to, water, solid waste, transportation, telecommunication, energy use capture and transmittal, power systems and alternative power systems or alternate power projects that incorporate principles of urban sustainability, eco-efficiency and global sustainable development; and
    • (G) Take all other necessary actions designed to further the goals and local objectives articulated in the redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan, including, but not limited to, the assistance, undertaking, or development of projects that promote affordable rental housing, including mixed-income rental housing, primarily for persons of low and moderate income, as determined by the board of commissioners of the authority. The authority may exercise all powers with respect to such projects in the same manner as mixed-finance projects for persons of low income as provided in part 1 of this chapter;
  • (5) Sell or lease land so acquired for uses in accordance with the redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
  • (6) Accomplish a combination of the foregoing to carry out a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan;
  • (7) Have and enjoy all the rights, powers, privileges and immunities granted to housing authorities under such law, and/or under any special act by which the authority may have been created, and/or any other provisions of law relating to slum clearance and housing projects for persons of low income; and
  • (8)
    • (A) Borrow money upon its bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness to finance any of the foregoing and to carry out a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan and secure the same by pledges of its income and revenues generally or its income and revenues from a particular redevelopment project or projects, including moneys received by any authority and placed in a special fund or funds pursuant to tax increment financing provisions contained in a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan, or from grants or contributions from any government, or in any other manner;
    • (B) Nothing contained in § 13-20-113, § 13-20-413 and/or in any special municipal housing authorities law shall be construed as limiting the power of an authority, in the event of default by a purchaser or lessee of land in a redevelopment plan or urban renewal plan, to acquire property and operate it free from restrictions contained in §§ 13-20-113 and 13-20-413, or in any special statute as aforementioned relating to tenant selection or operation without profit.

• (b) For the purposes of this section and the implementation of redevelopment districts as delineated in §§ 13-20-201 - 13-20-205, community development agencies as defined in the Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, of municipalities, will also be considered as housing authorities and will have vested in them the powers as delineated in this section in which housing authority redevelopment powers are vested, as long as public notice required in § 13-20-203 is provided. This subsection (b) applies only in counties with populations greater than eight hundred thousand (800,000), according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census, and in counties with populations greater than one hundred thirty-four thousand seven hundred (134,700) and less than one hundred thirty-four thousand eight hundred (134,800), according to the 2000 federal census or any subsequent federal census.

• (c) For the purposes of this part, a development authority created by private act and designated by a municipality as its housing and redevelopment authority for purposes of this part shall also be considered a housing authority and shall have the power to enter into an economic development agreement as defined in § 4-17-102(2) and the powers delineated in this part, in which housing authority redevelopment powers are vested, as long as public notice required in § 13-20-203 is provided; provided, however, a municipality shall not so designate a development authority if the housing authority, if any, created by the municipality has ever issued any obligations secured by tax increment revenues and in any event such designation shall only be effective if the municipality shall first obtain the written consent of the housing authority, if any, created by the municipality. Any redevelopment plan previously prepared by a development authority created pursuant to any such private act and approved by a municipality shall be deemed authorized by this subsection (c) and shall be deemed a valid redevelopment plan for purposes of this part.

Amended by 2020 Tenn. Acts, ch. 609, s 1, eff. 3/25/2020.

Acts 1945, ch. 114, §§ 2, 3; mod. C. Supp. 1950, § 3647.290 (Williams, §§ 3647.53, 3647.54); Acts 1978, ch. 854, § 2; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 13-814; Acts 1998, ch. 619, § 1; 1999, ch. 332, § 1; 2004, ch. 772, § 1; 2005, ch. 352, § 2; 2009 , ch. 406, § 1; 2009 , ch. 491, § 1; 2010 , ch. 1126, § 1.