Title 37
Public Property and Works

Chapter 6.1
Relocation Payments

R.I. Gen. Laws § 37-6.1-9

§ 37-6.1-9. Definitions.

As used in the preceding sections of this chapter the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) “Business” means any lawful activity conducted primarily:

(i) For the purchase and resale, manufacture, processing, or marketing of products, commodities, or any other personal property;

(ii) For the sale of services to the public; or

(iii) By a nonprofit organization.

(2) “Displaced person” means any person who moves from real property on or after August 23, 1968, as a result of the acquisition or reasonable expectation of acquisition of real property, which is subsequently acquired in whole or in part by the state for a highway, or as the result of the acquisition by the state for a highway of other real property on which the person conducts a business or farm operation. A person who moves from real property which is subsequently acquired for a state highway as a result of the “reasonable expectation of acquisition of the real property” is one who moves from the property (i) after notification by the department of transportation that the property is to be acquired for a project or after the location of the highway has been definitely established and approved by the department of transportation and (ii) within twelve (12) months before the property is scheduled to be taken by the state; provided that a person who moves onto real property within twelve (12) months before the property is scheduled to be taken by the state and moves from the property more than ninety (90) days before the property is scheduled to be taken by the state is not a displaced person for the purposes of this chapter. Any person who moves from the property prior to acquisition thereof by the state, in order to be eligible for payment under this chapter shall, prior to the removal, notify the department of transportation in writing thereof and receive the certificate of the department of transportation as to his or her eligibility as a displaced person for the purposes of this chapter subject to the subsequent acquisition of the property by the state.

(3) “Family” means two (2) or more individuals living together in the same dwelling unit who are related to each other by blood, marriage, adoption, or legal guardianship.

(4) “Farm operation” means any activity conducted solely or primarily for the production of one or more agricultural products or commodities for sale and home use, and customarily producing those products or commodities in sufficient quantity to be capable of contributing materially to the operator’s support.

(5) “Person” means:

(i) Any individual, partnership, corporation, or association which is the owner of a business;

(ii) Any owner, part owner, tenant, or sharecropper who operates a farm;

(iii) An individual who is the head of a family; or

(iv) An individual not a member of a family.

History of Section.
P.L. 1969, ch. 218, § 1; P.L. 1997, ch. 326, § 161.