Municipalities face many restrictions on how they may use real property, and Pennsylvania law places additional statutory restrictions on a municipality's conveyance of property that has been used as a "public facility." The Donated or Dedicated Property Act, 53 P.S. Sections 3381-3386 (DDPA), states that "all lands or buildings … donated to a political subdivision for use as a public facility, or dedicated to the public use or offered for dedication to such use … shall be deemed to be held by such political subdivision, as trustee, for the benefit of the public with full legal title in the said trustee." "Lands" include all real estate, whether improved or unimproved, and a "public facility" includes, without limitation "any park, theater, open air theater, square, museum, library, concert hall, recreation facility or other public use." Any such lands or buildings are required to be used only for the purpose or purposes for which they were originally donated or dedicated, unless modified by court order.

Consequently, a municipality cannot simply sell or change the use of real property donated for or dedicated to use by the public. This concept may seem familiar to the lay person and land use practitioner alike because, in essence, the DDPA codifies the common law of the "public trust doctrine" which requires that public property dedicated to public use be held by the municipality, as a trustee, for the benefit of the community.