Mo. Rev. Stat. § 99.310
It is hereby found and declared that there exists in municipalities of the state insanitary, blighted, deteriorated and deteriorating areas which constitute a serious and growing menace injurious to the public health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents of the state; that the existence of such areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection and other public services and facilities, constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of communities and retards the provision of housing accommodations; that this menace is beyond remedy and control solely by regulatory process in the exercise of the police power and cannot be dealt with effectively by the ordinary operations of private enterprise without the aids herein provided; that the elimination or prevention of the detrimental conditions in such areas, the acquisition and preparation of land in or necessary to the development, renewal or rehabilitation of such areas and its sale or lease for development, renewal or rehabilitation in accordance with general plans and redevelopment or urban renewal plans of communities and any assistance which may be given by any public body in connection therewith are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and private property acquired; and that the necessity in the public interest for the provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination; and that certain insanitary, blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating areas, or portions thereof, may require acquisition and clearance, as provided in this law, since the prevailing condition of decay may make impracticable the reclamation of the area by conservation or rehabilitation, but other areas or portions thereof, through the means provided in this law may be susceptible of conservation or rehabilitation in such a manner that the conditions and evils hereinbefore enumerated may be eliminated, remedied or prevented, and to the extent feasible, salvable, insanitary and blighted areas should be conserved and rehabilitated through voluntary action and the regulatory process. A municipality, to the greatest extent it determines to be feasible in carrying out the provisions of this law, shall afford maximum opportunity, consistent with the sound needs of the municipality as a whole, to the rehabilitation or redevelopment or renewal of areas by private enterprise.
§ 99.310, RSMo