AMENDMENT 596 RATIFIED
Promotion of Economic and Industrial Development in Walker County.
For the promotion of local economic and industrial development of Walker County, Walker County and each municipality the corporate limits of which are located wholly in the 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 to do all of the following:
(1) 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 those sites or projects.
(2) To lease, sell, grant, exchange, or otherwise convey, on terms approved by the governing body of the county or any such municipality, as applicable, all or any part of any site or 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, by a purchaser or lessee, and equipping and operating, industrial, transportation, distribution, warehouse or research facilities, and offices and other facilities auxiliary to the foregoing.
(3) To grant public funds to the industrial development boards, public corporations, or authorities.
Any action referred to in subdivision (1), (2), and (3) which has been taken subsequent to January 1, 1996, is ratified, approved, and confirmed. 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 Walker County nor any municipality located wholly within Walker County shall be subject to the provisions of Sections 93 or 94 of this constitution, as amended. 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 the county or the municipality in carrying out the purposes of this amendment and the special or local law shall not be subject to the provisions of Sections 104 and 106 of this constitution, as amended. This amendment shall be self-executing and the powers granted hereby may be exercised as an alternative to, or cumulative with, and in no way restrictive of, powers otherwise granted by law to the county, or to any municipality, or to any agency, board, or authority created pursuant to the laws of this state and acting pursuant to this amendment.
No action may be taken under this amendment by the county or any of the municipalities until after the question of whether the county and the municipalities shall have the authority to take the action shall be 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 qualified electors voting at the election vote in favor of the county and the municipalities having the authority to take action.
