The department shall prepare and perfect from time to time a State master plan for the physical development of the State and prepare and keep current a proposed long term development program of major State improvements. The Economic Council shall hold public hearings on such plan or plans and shall transmit to the Governor and the Legislature such plans as it may agree upon. When approved by the Legislature, such plan or plans shall be known as the official State plan.

The department shall among other things:

a. Advise with the various State departments, agencies and instrumentalities, and with local authorities and individuals with a view to the co-ordination of all physical development plans, including plans for highways, airways and air terminals, parkways, parks, water supply development, flood control, land use, recreation areas and forest reservations that are related to an economical and comprehensive development of the State.

b. Make studies of rural land utilization with a view to the determination of the areas suitable for field crops, for reforestation, for watershed protection, for reclamation, for recreation, for summer residence and for industrial and urban expansion.

c. Investigate living, dwelling and housing conditions and into the means and methods of improving such conditions; determine where slum areas exist or where there is a shortage of decent, safe and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; make studies and recommendations relating to the problem of clearing, replanning and reconstructing of slum areas, and the problem of providing dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; and co-operate with any public body in action taken in connection with such problems; and engage in research, studies and experimentation on the subject of housing.

d. The department shall enforce compliance with the laws relating to local housing authorities, and shall succeed to all the functions, powers and duties of the State Housing Authority and of its director under chapters fourteen-A and fifteen of Title 55 of the Revised Statutes.

L.1944, c. 85, art. 3, p. 173, s. 18.