Title 45
Towns and Cities

Chapter 36.1
Municipal Public Trust Dedication

§ 45-36.1-1. Legislative purpose.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a voluntary mechanism for cities and towns to use to dedicate a park, or other conservation land that it owns, as public trust land in perpetuity in order to ensure preservation of the natural environment and public access to the land for outdoor recreation and to ensure that the land is not converted to a use other than the use for which it was originally obtained and remains predominantly undeveloped and continues to provide open space benefits. People rely on their parks and other public open spaces and conservation land as stable, reliable places of comfort, rest, and renewal in their lives. People make decisions on where to reside and work based on proximity to these places. They expect that these places will always be there for them. This expectation is supported by R.I. Const., Art. I, § 17, which states the people:

“shall be secure in their rights to the use and enjoyment of the natural resources of the state with due regard for the preservation of their values; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide for the conservation of the air, land, water, plant, animal, mineral and other natural resources of the state, and to adopt all means necessary and proper by law to protect the natural environment of the people of the state by providing adequate resource planning for the control and regulation of the use of the natural resources of the state and for the preservation, regeneration and restoration of the natural environment of the state.”