AMENDMENT 415 RATIFIED

Industrial Sites and Industrial Park Projects in Calhoun County and Municipalities Therein.

For the promotion of local economic and industrial development, Calhoun county and each municipality situated in said county, shall, other provisions of law or this Constitution notwithstanding, have, independently or in cooperation with one or more of such governmental entities, full and continuing power (a) to purchase, lease or otherwise acquire land, or to utilize land heretofore purchased or otherwise acquired, and to improve and develop such land for use as industrial sites or industrial park projects, including, but not limited to, grading and the construction of roads, drainage, sewers, sewage and waste disposal systems, parking areas and utilities to serve said projects, (b) to lease, sell, grant, exchange or otherwise convey, on terms approved by the governing body of such county or municipality, all or any part of any such project to any person, firm or corporation, public or private, including any industrial development board, other public corporation, or authority heretofore or hereafter created by the county or any municipality therein, for the purpose of constructing or developing thereon, by such purchaser or leasee, and equipping and operating, industrial, transportation, distribution, warehouse or research facilities, and offices and other facilities auxiliary to the foregoing, and (c) to grant public funds to such industrial development boards, public corporations or authorities. Nothing herein shall authorize the county, or any municipality therein, to construct buildings for the purpose of lease or sale.

In carrying out the purposes of this amendment, neither Calhoun county nor any municipality in said county shall be subject to the provisions of Sections 93 or 94 of the Constitution of Alabama, as amended, and the legislature shall have the power, by special or local law, to create, or provide for the creation of, any public corporation, authority, board, agency, or other entity empowered or intended to assist or aid in any way Calhoun county or any municipality therein in carrying out the purposes of this amendment and such special or local law shall not be subject to the provisions of Sections 104 and 106 of this Constitution, as amended. The provisions of this amendment shall be self-executing and the powers granted hereby may be exercised as alternative to, or cumulative with, and in no way restrictive of, powers otherwise granted by law to such county, or to any municipality therein, or to any agency, board, or authority created pursuant to the laws of this state.

No action may be taken under this amendment by the said county or any of the municipalities therein until after the question of whether the county and the said municipalities shall have the authority to take such action shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the county at an election called for that purpose by the governing body of the county and a majority of the said qualified voters voting at the said election shall have voted in favor of the county and the said municipalities having the authority to take such action; provided, that if a majority of the qualified electors of the county participating in the election on the adoption of this amendment shall vote for the adoption thereof, then the approval of this amendment expressed by said vote in favor of its adoption shall of itself authorize the taking of any and all action provided for in the first sentence of this amendment and no additional election by the electors of the county shall ever be required to authorize the taking of any such action. If the majority of the qualified electors of the county participating in the election on the adoption of this amendment shall not vote in favor of the adoption of this amendment, or if the majority of the qualified electors of the county voting in any election called by the governing body under the provisions of this amendment should not vote in favor of the county and the municipalities having the authority to take such action at an election so called, the governing body of the county may from time to time call other elections hereunder on the question of whether the county and the municipalities therein shall be authorized to take such action, but not more than one such election shall be held during any period of twelve consecutive months. Any such election called by the governing body of the county shall be called, held, conducted and canvassed and may be contested in the manner and within the time provided by the then existing general laws of Alabama pertaining to elections on the issuance of bonds by counties. Any such election shall be conclusive on the question of whether the county and the municipalities therein shall have the authority to take such action and it will not thereafter be necessary for an election to be held in connection with each exercise by either the county or the municipalities of the power and authority granted them by the provisions of the first sentence of this amendment.