Apartment houses: yards, separation between buildings and loading bay

It is Rule 8.1.4 of Chapter 8.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, the third of the chapter’s four typologies, after terraced houses and patio houses and before tiny houses. This guide covers its physical parameters: the lot’s size and width, occupation, yards, separations between buildings and from other areas, accessory buildings, the loading and unloading space and projections. The population density and the gross floor area, which the same rule treats in two separate sections with tables of their own, are in this site’s companion guide on that subject.

The rule applies to apartment-house projects in qualification districts R-B, R-I, R-U, RT-I and RT-A. The projects will be considered by OGPe, the Authorised Professional, the Junta Adjudicativa or the Autonomous Municipality with Hierarchy I to III. The nine-metre separation between apartment houses applies in the districts the table calls R-T; the fifteen-metre or one-fifth-of-the-sum-of-heights one applies in R-B, R-I and R-U. And the loading and unloading space is required for every forty dwelling units or fraction thereof in excess of fifteen units.

• A lot size of no less than two hundred and fifty square metres.Verified against the official source
• On interior lots, a minimum lot width or frontage for each unit of no less than six metres.Verified against the official source
• A maximum occupation area of fifty per cent.Verified against the official source
• A front yard with a depth no less than three metres.Verified against the official source
• Side and rear yards with a width or depth no less than three metres nor less than one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater.Verified against the official source
• Treating as a front yard any side or rear yard bordering a road, meeting the front-yard requirements of the district where it is sited.Verified against the official source
• In the districts the table calls R-T: a separation between apartment houses on the same lot of no less than nine metres.Verified against the official source
• In districts R-B, R-I and R-U: a separation between apartment houses on the same lot no less than fifteen metres nor less than one fifth of the sum of the heights of the buildings considered, whichever is greater.Verified against the official source
• A separation of no less than three metres between apartment houses and other areas such as parking or services, parks, walks, pedestrian walkways and other similar ones sited outside the buildings.Verified against the official source
• Locating accessory buildings or service areas for drying clothes or rubbish collection at the side or at the rear of the buildings, additionally complying with Chapter 8.4.Verified against the official source
• Providing a loading and unloading space of a size no less than eight metres by three metres for every forty dwelling units or fraction thereof in excess of fifteen units.Verified against the official source
• Locating the loading and unloading areas at the side or at the rear of the building and limiting their visibility from the pavement.Verified against the official source
• That projections not extend more than one metre into the yards nor into the separation between buildings or areas on the same lot, and that open cantilevered balconies observe a separation of no less than one and a half metres from any side or rear boundary line.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The lot and the occupation

   The lot size shall be no less than two hundred and fifty square metres, the same as the patio house. On interior lots a minimum lot width or frontage, for each unit, of no less than six metres is required. And the maximum occupation area is fifty per cent: the lowest of the chapter’s three typologies, against the terraced house’s sixty and the patio house’s sixty-five. A note on the source: the minimum-width row repeats word for word the terraced-house table’s wording, including the phrase about units constituting the ends of terraced houses inside the apartment-house table; we reproduce it as printed.

2. 2

   Step 2: The yards grow with the height

   The front yard is simple: a front yard with a depth no less than three metres is required. The side and rear ones are not: they shall have a width or depth no less than three metres nor less than one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater. That means a twenty-metre-tall building asks for four metres of side and rear yard, not three. And there is a rule that reorders the lot’s geometry: any side or rear yard bordering a road is treated as a front yard and shall meet the front-yard requirements of the district where it is sited.

3. 3

   Step 3: The separation between buildings changes by district

   Here the regulation separates the two families of districts. In the districts the table calls R-T a separation between apartment houses on the same lot of no less than nine metres is required. In districts R-B, R-I and R-U a separation between apartment houses on the same lot of no less than fifteen metres nor less than one fifth of the sum of the heights of the buildings considered, whichever is greater, is required. Note the formula’s difference: here it is not one fifth of one building’s height, but of the sum of the heights of the two buildings compared. Two buildings of forty metres each ask for sixteen metres of separation, not fifteen.

4. 4

   Step 4: The separation from the lot’s other areas

   The table’s last row is short and always applies: a separation of no less than three metres is required between apartment houses and other areas such as parking or service areas, park areas, walks, pedestrian walkways and other similar areas sited outside the buildings. In a compact project that three-metre strip is usually what decides where the parking fits.

5. 5

   Step 5: Where the rubbish and the laundry go

   Section 8.1.4.5 resolves it in one sentence: accessory buildings or service areas for drying clothes or rubbish collection shall be located at the side or at the rear of the buildings, and shall comply with the other provisions of Chapter 8.4 of the same volume. It is worth comparing with the terraced house, where the regulation admits only the rear: in apartment houses the side is also allowed, and rubbish collection is expressly added.

6. 6

   Step 6: The loading and unloading space

   It is the requirement most projects forget at the design stage. Every building or part of a building occupied or used as an apartment house shall be provided with a loading and unloading space of a size no less than eight metres by three metres for every forty dwelling units or fraction thereof in excess of fifteen units. That is, the requirement is triggered on passing fifteen units, and is counted for every forty or fraction above that threshold. Besides, the loading and unloading areas shall be located at the side or at the rear of the building and their visibility from the pavement shall be limited.

7. 7

   Step 7: Projections and balconies

   Section 8.1.4.7 distinguishes two things. Projections such as cornices, eaves, roofs and other architectural features may extend into the yards or into the separation between buildings or areas on the same lot established in that section up to one metre. And the extension of open cantilevered balconies is additionally allowed up to one metre within the required front and rear yards, provided they observe a separation of no less than one and a half metres from any side or rear boundary line of the lot. Note that here, unlike terraced and patio houses, the metre of projection may also eat into the separation between buildings.

8. 8

   Step 8: Two notes on the source’s headings

   The rule is titled "Apartment Houses in Districts R-B, R-I, R-U, RT-I and RT-A", and that is how we publish it. But two of its sections carry headings narrower than that title: Section 8.1.4.1 is titled "General Provision in Districts R-I, R-U and R-T", omitting R-B, and Section 8.1.4.7 is titled "Projections for Apartment Houses in Districts R-U, RT-I and RT-A", omitting R-B and R-I. The regulation does not explain the difference and we do not resolve it: we state the scope the rule’s title declares and record the headings. Separately, the "R-T" label the separation rows use appears nowhere else in the chapter as a district code.

Apartment-house projects will be considered by OGPe, an Authorised Professional, the Junta Adjudicativa or an Autonomous Municipality with Hierarchy I to III, according to each one’s scope, within the construction permit or Permiso Único process. The property’s qualification — R-B, R-I, R-U, RT-I or RT-A — is read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps, and which of the two separation rules applies depends on it.

• Applying the patio house’s sixty-five per cent occupation, when the apartment house allows fifty.
• Leaving the side and rear yards at three metres in a tall building, without comparing with one fifth of the height.
• Computing the separation between buildings in R-B, R-I or R-U with one fifth of a single building’s height, when the formula uses the sum of both heights.
• Using the tourist districts’ nine-metre separation in an R-B, R-I or R-U district.
• Treating as a side or rear yard a strip bordering a road, when it counts as a front yard of the district where it is sited.
• Leaving less than three metres between the buildings and the parking, services, parks, walks or pedestrian walkways.
• Placing the clothes-drying area or rubbish collection at the front of the buildings.
• Omitting the loading and unloading space in a building of more than fifteen dwelling units.
• Providing a loading space smaller than eight metres by three metres.
• Placing the loading and unloading area at the front, or without limiting its visibility from the pavement.
• Extending a projection more than one metre into a yard or into the separation between buildings.
• Placing an open cantilevered balcony closer than one and a half metres to a side or rear boundary line.
• Looking for density or gross floor area in the parameter table, when they are in Sections 8.1.4.3 and 8.1.4.4.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico (JP)

  Junta de Planificación

  docs.pr.gov

• Planning Board

  jp

  jp.pr.gov

• OGPe Single Business Portal

  ogpe

  www.permisos.pr.gov