Closing or building a carport: the measurements that govern

It is Chapter 8.2 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, the regulation governing the evaluation and issue of permits relating to development, land use and business operation in Puerto Rico. The chapter is not about procedures: it fixes the dimensions and permitted closures of a carport in residential districts. It is the yardstick against which what you already built and what you want to build are measured.

It applies to carports in residential districts. The chapter distinguishes three situations that change the measurements: the carport in general, the one extending into one of the required side yards — and the one extending into the other side yard, with its own nearly identical rules — and the one occupying the required rear yard on a corner lot. Before measuring anything it helps to know which of the three you are in, because the height and width caps are not the same.

• A vehicle parking space width of no less than ten (10) feet.Verified against the official source
• A parking space length of no less than twenty (20) feet, excluding eaves where they project into a required front or rear yard.Verified against the official source
• That the gate installed at the front not block the reading of electricity consumption and that the carport use be kept.Verified against the official source
• Keeping, in dwellings, at least one access to the rear yard when the side or the rear is closed.Verified against the official source
• That no carport extending wholly or partly into a required side yard exceed one (1) storey or thirteen (13) feet in height.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Ten by twenty, and where it is measured from

   The chapter’s first two rules decide whether a carport is a carport. The minimum width of the vehicle parking space shall be no less than ten feet. The minimum length shall be no less than twenty feet, excluding eaves where they project into a required front or rear yard. That "excluding eaves" matters: an eave encroaching on the required yard does not count towards the twenty feet.

2. 2

   Step 2: The front gate: allowed, with one condition

   This is the most common question and the answer is generous: any kind of gate may be installed at the front of a carport, so long as it does not block the reading of electricity consumption and the carport use is kept. Two conditions, no more. The first is physical — the meter must stay accessible for reading — and the second is about use: it remains a carport, not something else.

3. 3

   Step 3: Closing the side: five feet for windows

   The side of a carport, on the side opposite the main building, may be closed. But installing windows there is not permitted closer than five feet from the lot’s side boundary line. And in dwellings at least one access to the rear yard must be kept. That is: closing the wall, yes; opening windows right by the neighbour, no; and walling off the way out to the yard, also no.

4. 4

   Step 4: Closing the rear: twenty inches

   The rear of a carport may be closed. However, in no case may windows be installed there closer than twenty inches from the lot’s side boundary line. Here too, in dwellings, at least one access to the rear yard must be kept. Note the difference from the side: five feet for the side windows, twenty inches for the rear ones.

5. 5

   Step 5: The roof as a terrace

   Where a second floor is occupied or used for residential purposes, partial use of the carport roof by the dwelling’s residents as an uncovered terrace is permitted. The condition is concrete: a wall of concrete and blocks must be built, forty-four inches high, along the carport roof slab and set no less than five feet from the lot’s boundary line. A concrete-and-block wall — not a railing of any material — forty-four inches, five feet from the boundary.

6. 6

   Step 6: Inside the required side yard

   In residential districts a carport attached to the main building is permitted inside one of the required side yards, where it meets the chapter’s general provisions and this rule’s. The caps: no carport extending wholly or partly into a required side yard shall exceed one storey or thirteen feet in height. The width, by contrast, is free: the side yard may be occupied regardless of the carport’s width. The roof slab’s length may equal but not exceed the building’s total length including eaves, and the carport may not extend into the required front or rear yards. The regulation repeats the same rules for the other side yard, where the main building’s position makes an additional carport there possible.

7. 7

   Step 7: Turning part of the carport into a room

   The regulation contemplates it expressly. Where one chooses — or needs — to separate the terrace, laundry, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or dining area, permitted as part of the carport, from the vehicle parking area, the dividing wall to be built will meet the rear-wall closure requirements, provided the ventilation of the building’s existing rooms is not affected. And there is a rule that settles many arguments: in these cases the wall opposite the main building of the room being fitted out shall be closed completely where it is a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or dining room. Bedrooms and kitchens shall have dimensions no smaller than those required by the rules in force.

8. 8

   Step 8: The forty-inch closets

   Closet installations are permitted on the carport side opposite the main building. The maximum width allowed for these closets shall not exceed forty inches, and they may not extend into the minimum width required for the vehicle parking space. That is: the closet cannot eat into the ten feet.

9. 9

   Step 9: The corner lot

   On a corner lot in a residential district a carport for one vehicle is permitted, attached to the main building and inside the required rear yard, where it meets the provisions of Chapter 8.5 of the same volume and this rule’s. Here the numbers change: no carport extending wholly or partly into that rear yard shall exceed one storey or thirteen feet in height; the maximum width shall not exceed thirteen feet — unlike the side yard, where width was free; and the roof slab’s length shall be no greater than the building’s total width including eaves, or thirty feet, whichever is less.

Chapter 8.2 fixes measurements, not procedures: it says nothing about where anything is filed. The corresponding construction or works permit is processed through the permit system the Joint Regulation itself governs — OGPe, an Authorised Professional, or the autonomous municipality with the corresponding hierarchy, as the case may be — and that part lives in other volumes of the regulation we did not read for this guide.

• Closing the front so the electricity meter is inaccessible for reading.
• Opening side windows closer than five feet from the side boundary.
• Opening rear windows closer than twenty inches from the side boundary.
• Walling in the carport without leaving at least one access to the rear yard.
• Counting eaves encroaching on the required yard towards the twenty-foot length.
• Fitting closets that eat into the ten-foot minimum width of the parking space.
• Using the roof as a terrace with a railing instead of the forty-four-inch concrete-and-block wall.
• Applying the side yard’s free width to a corner lot, where the maximum is thirteen feet.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov