Section 48-4-101. Findings and declarations

   The General Assembly finds and declares that:

   (1) Georgia's communities are important to the social and economic vitality of this state. Whether urban, suburban, or rural, many communities are struggling to cope with dilapidated, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties;

   (2) Citizens of Georgia are affected adversely by dilapidated, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties, including properties that have been abandoned due to mortgage foreclosure;

   (3) Dilapidated, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties impose significant costs on neighborhoods and communities by lowering property values, increasing fire and police protection costs, decreasing tax revenues, and undermining community cohesion;

   (4) There is an overriding public need to confront the problems caused by dilapidated, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties, and to return properties which are in nonrevenue-generating, nontax-producing status to an effective utilization status in order to provide affordable housing, new industry, and jobs for the citizens of this state through the creation of new tools that enable communities to turn abandoned spaces into vibrant places; and

   (5) Land banks are one of the tools that can be utilized by communities to facilitate the return of dilapidated, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties to productive use.

Code 1981, § 48-4-101, enacted by Ga. L. 2012, p. 1055, § 2/SB 284.