Section 970-B. Legislative findings and declaration

It is hereby found and
  declared that there exists in  many  communities  blighted  areas  which
  threaten  the economic and social well-being of the people of the state.
  Blighted areas are characterized by one or more of  the  conditions  set
  forth  in  subdivision  (a)  of  section  nine  hundred  sixty-c of this
  article.
    It is further found and declared that such conditions of  blight  tend
  to  further  obsolescence,  deterioration  and disuse and that remedying
  such conditions is necessary to  facilitate  commercial  and  industrial
  development,   to   maintain   and   expand   the   supply  of  low  and
  moderate-income  housing  and  to   maintain   and   expand   employment
  opportunities for jobless, underemployed and low income persons.
    For  these  reasons  it  is  declared to be the policy of the state to
  protect and promote the sound development and redevelopment of  blighted
  areas   and   whenever   the  redevelopment  of  such  areas  cannot  be
  accomplished by private enterprise alone  without  public  participation
  and  assistance  in  the  acquisition  of  land,  in planning and in the
  financing of land assembly, in the work of clearance, and in the  making
  of  improvements  necessary  therefor,  it  is in the public interest to
  employ the power of eminent domain, to advance or  expend  public  funds
  for  these  purposes, and to provide a means by which blighted areas may
  be redeveloped or rehabilitated.