R.I. Gen. Laws § 32-4-5: Duties of director.

In acquiring lands and making grants to assist local units to acquire lands, the director shall:

(1) Seek to achieve a reasonable balance among all areas of the state in consideration of the relative adequacy of area recreation and conservation facilities at the time and the relative anticipated future needs for additional recreation and conservation facilities;

(2) Give due consideration to the special park requirement needs of urban areas;

(3) Give due consideration to acquiring unusual or unique natural areas;

(4) Insofar as practicable, and except as provided in subdivision (3) of this section, limit acquisition to predominately open and natural land in order to minimize the cost of acquisition and the expense of rendering land suitable for recreation and conservation purposes;

(5) Wherever possible, select land for acquisition that is suitable for multiple recreation and conservation purposes and contains an area sufficiently large to make practical its use for those purposes;

(6) Give due consideration to coordination with the plans of other departments of state government with respect to land use or acquisition. For this purpose, the director is authorized to use the facilities of the department of economic development and any agency, commission, or interdepartmental committee; and

(7) Encourage contiguous local units to develop joint plans with respect to land use or acquisition for recreation and conservation purposes.