§ 46-5-1.1. Permission to conduct filling activity distinguished from grants of rights and property interest in the filled area. (a) It is the policy of the state of Rhode Island that the state's permission to fill tidelands is separate and distinct from the state's granting of a right, title, or interest in and to the resulting filled area. Furthermore, it is the policy of the state of Rhode Island that the state permission to use tidal lands is separate and distinct from the state's conveyance of its fee title estate, or any real estate interest, in the tidal lands. Any title to a free hold estate may be conveyed only by a valid legislative grant for public trust purposes by direct enactment of the general assembly as specified in this chapter. Moreover, any leasehold interest or license to use those lands may only arise under the authority of the general assembly whether exercised by the general assembly itself or exercised pursuant to a valid delegation to a duly authorized instrumentality of the state. Any state permission to use tidal lands belonging to the state shall be deemed to create only a revocable license interest unless a greater interest is clearly intended by the permission and the requirements of this chapter for the creation of that greater interest are met.

(b) It is intended that there shall be no acquiring of any right or title whatsoever to these public lands by adverse possession or by a acquiescence of the sovereign. It is further intended that there shall be no acquiring of any right or title to any freehold estate to these public lands by any permit or approval to conduct fill activity, however denominated or manifested, or by any other means, including through the leasing and licensing of these public lands, except solely by grant and enactment of the general assembly as provided in this chapter for a use that benefits the public under the public trust doctrine. Without impairing any right, title, or interest that may have previously vested, any placement of fill to a harbor line or other filling of tidal lands, which has not been commenced and completed as of the date of the enactment of this section [July 18, 2000], shall not be effective as conveying the state's title nor as a limitation on the public trust.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit, impair, increase, or add to the ownership rights or title in any filled lands which vested prior to the enactment of this section [July 18, 2000].

History of Section. (P.L. 2000, ch. 314, § 2; P.L. 2007, ch. 340, § 39.)