P.R. Laws tit. 21, § 4610
The municipality, following the procedures and norms established in §§ 4651 et seq. of this title, may request that the Governor transfer certain powers of the Planning Board and the Regulations and Permits Administration on the territorial ordinance, including complaints, authorizations and permits. The transfer shall be effected according to the following:
(a) The mayor shall submit a petition to the Legislature for the latter to issue an authorization to request that the Governor transfer the categories of territorial ordinance powers in question. Said petition must be drafted in the manner provided in § 4656 of this title and shall be accompanied by a detailed estimate of the costs to implement said powers that are chargeable to the municipal budget, including those related to the technical, financial and human resources needed to that effect. Before being submitted to the Governor, the petition shall require the approval of the Legislature through ordinance, with the favorable vote of not less than two-thirds (⅔) of its members.
(b) The municipality shall submit a petition for the transfer to the Governor, which shall be evaluated to reach the corresponding determination using, among others, the following criteria:
(1) That the municipality prove that the powers to be transferred are to be exercised or applied exclusively within the territorial boundaries of the municipality to which they are delegated and that its effects shall not transcend the territorial perimeter of municipal jurisdiction.
(2) That the municipality prove that it shall have the technical, financial and human resources needed to enforce the powers whose transfer it is requesting.
(c) The transfer of powers shall require that the municipality establish a Permits Office.
(d) The transfer of powers shall require that the municipality have a territorial plan in effect.
(e) The notice of any transfer of powers arranged by virtue of the provisions of this section shall be published in at least one of the newspapers of general circulation in Puerto Rico and shall also be posted in a visible place in the town hall of the municipality concerned. Said notice shall specify each of the powers that are transferred.
The municipality shall provide the necessary standards to ensure a close liaison and collaboration with the Planning Board and the Regulations and Permits Administration in every process for the transfer of powers. The agreement may set limitations to the powers thus delegated according to the capabilities of the municipality. The power whose transfer is authorized shall be exercised according to the norms and procedures established in the legislation, regulations and public policy that apply to the power transferred, including §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3, known as the “Uniform Administrative Procedures Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”. Together with the transfer of a power, the power to handle, denounce, resolve and process complaints and violations related to said power shall also be transferred.
The transfers shall be granted by categories, by sequential stages or simultaneously and once a category has been transferred the total evaluation process of said category is also transferred, except for those powers reserved by the public agencies or through an agreement. Once the category has been transferred, the corresponding incidental procedures such as conformity consultations, authorizations for demolition, structure transfers, land moving, submittals to the Horizontal Property Act, §§ 1291 et seq. of Title 31, and surface area rectification, among others, shall also be transferred. Once a municipality grants an authorization or construction permit in a category, it shall also grant the use permit for said construction. Likewise, if it is the public agency that grants an authorization or a construction permit, that same agency shall be the one to grant the use permit, except when established otherwise in an agreement.
Pursuant to what has been stated above, the municipality may request the following powers concerning territorial ordinance:
(a) Category I —
(1) Use permits for existing structures or lots, and permits for the installation and display of billboards and advertisements; both permits are for uses or installations which conform to the regulations in effect and do not require variations or exceptions and which are not uses or structures that do not legally conform. “Use permit for existing structures or lots” shall be understood to mean that permit granted to structures or lots that had been previously occupied and whose use permit differs from the one which is granted immediately after a construction project or a segregation is carried out; should this be the first time that the use permit is granted, the latter shall be granted by the entity responsible for evaluating the preliminary plan or the construction project or segregation, thus avoiding that two (2) different entities, one a Central Government and the other a municipal entity, may analyze the same project at different stages in their evaluation and permit process. Every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
(b) Category II —
(1) Use permits for existing structures or lots, and permits for the installation and display of billboards and notices; both permits are for uses or installations which do not conform to the regulations in effect and require exceptions, variations in the construction, or variations in the installation of billboards and notices. It does not include permits that require variations in use or intensity of use, a power reserved to the public agencies as established hereinbelow in this section. ‘Use permit for existing structures or lots’ shall be understood to mean that permit granted to structures or lots that had been previously occupied and whose use permit differs from the one which is granted immediately after a construction project or a segregation is carried out; should this be the first time that the use permit is granted, the latter shall be granted by the entity responsible for evaluating the preliminary plan or the construction project or segregation, thus avoiding that two (2) different entities, one a central government and the other a municipal entity, may analyze the same project at different stages in their evaluation and permit process. Every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
(2) Authorizations for preliminary plans, construction permits (conventional or by the certifications law) and use permits, all on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of projects whose construction area is less than one thousand (1,000) square meters, whose height does not exceed four (4) stories and which conform to the regulations in effect concerning the use and intensity of use. Including the consideration of urbanization projects that are incidental and inherent to the construction that is authorized. For the projects in this category to be considered by the municipalities, they must be located on lots on urban or urbanizable land with a surface area of less than fifteen hundred (1,500) square meters. Every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
(3) Authorization to segregate up to ten (10) lots, including the remnants thereof, on urban or urbanizable land pursuant to the Ordinance Plan.
(c) Category III —
(1) Authorizations for preliminary plans, construction permits (conventional or by the certifications law) and use permits, all on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of projects whose construction area is less than twenty-five hundred (2,500) square meters, whose height does not exceed four (4) stories and which conform to the regulations in effect concerning the use and intensity of use. Including the consideration of urbanization projects that are incidental and inherent to the construction that is authorized. For the projects in this category to be considered by the municipalities, they must be located on lots on urban or urbanizable land with a surface area of less than twenty-five hundred (2,500) square meters. Every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
(2) Preliminary development authorizations, construction permits for urbanization works and authorization of registration plans, all on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of urbanization projects of up to fifty (50) lots, pursuant to the regulations in effect.
(3) Amendments to the ordinance plans on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of lots with a surface area not greater than one thousand (1,000) square meters, located on urban or urbanizable land.
(d) Category IV —
(1) Authorizations or preliminary plans, construction permits (conventional or by the certifications law) and use permits, all on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of projects whose construction area is less than five thousand (5,000) square meters, whose height does not exceed four (4) stories and which conform to the regulations in effect concerning the use and intensity of use. Including the consideration of urbanization projects that are incidental and inherent to the construction that is authorized. For the projects in this category to be considered by the municipalities, they must be located on lots on urban or urbanizable land with a surface area of less than four thousand (4,000) square meters. Every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
(2) Amendments to the Ordinance Plans on urban or urbanizable land: Consideration of lots with a surface area not greater than two thousand (2,000) square meters.
(e) Category V —
(1) Transfer of other powers of the Regulations and Permits Administration and the Planning Board, except the authorizations for industrialized construction systems, those reserved in the agreement and those mentioned herein below.
In the exercise of these powers and at the time of issuing an authorization or permit, the municipality shall insure that the infrastructure needed to serve the project is available or that the effective and feasible manner to mitigate the effects of the project on the infrastructure has been identified before the project is ready to receive a use permit. A municipality may not grant a use permit if the infrastructure is not available.
Regardless of the transfers made, the Planning Board and the Regulations and Permits Administration, shall reserve the power to consider the following:
(a) Private projects of a regional nature or impact not included in an Ordinance Plan and that are important to the health, safety and welfare of the region.
(b) Public agency projects not included in the Ordinance Plan.
(c) Variations in the use and variations in the intensity of the construction or the use.
(d) Municipal projects which have not been expressly delegated in an agreement or included in the Ordinance Plan.
No municipality with the power to evaluate and issue permits for the type of works or project whose power for consideration remains with the public agencies may refuse to approve the works or the project, should said works or project conform to the provisions established by the public agencies, nor may it modify the conditions imposed by the latter.
The regulations adopted for this purpose by the Planning Board shall provide the procedures for filing and evaluating the projects whose power for evaluation is reserved to the public agencies, taking into consideration the following:
(a) The public agency concerned shall consider the provisions of the ordinance plan that are applicable when evaluating the petition and shall take the necessary steps to establish harmony with the plan as much as possible.
(b) The public agency concerned shall request comments from the municipality in the evaluation of the petition.
In those cases in which the municipality has acquired the transfers up to Category V, inclusive, all petitions for authorizations or permits, including those reserved to the Planning Board or the Regulations and Permits Administration shall be filed with the Permits Office of the municipality. Said Office, after examining the file, regarding those projects whose power for consideration belongs to the central agencies, shall forward the file to the corresponding agency within a period not to exceed ten (10) days after the date on which the petition was filed so that the latter may act according to the law.
Once the power established by the various categories has been transferred, the municipality shall assume all responsibility for the actions taken in the exercise of said power.
The municipalities may request from the Planning Board and the Regulations and Permits Administration a certified copy of those files, plans and other documents relative to the previous history of the cases and matters pertaining to the powers concerning the territorial ordinance that have been transferred to it by virtue of this section. In such cases, said public agencies shall be bound to provide, within a reasonably brief period of time, a certified copy of the aforementioned documents.
Any agreement that transfers those powers concerning the territorial ordinance to the municipalities must establish the causes for their suspension or revocation by the Governor.
Any procedure pending before the Planning Board, the Regulations and Permits Administration, the Board of Appeals for Constructions and Parceling, or before any court, on the date in which the transfer of the powers concerning territorial ordinance to a municipality is effected, shall continue to be processed by the state entities concerned until a final decision is reached regarding the procedure under consideration.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.012; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 69; July 12, 2011, No. 121, § 1.