Construction permits in a historic zone

If your house or premises sits inside a historic zone — Old San Juan, Ponce’s historic zone and the others the Planning Board has established — this is the Act that explains why you cannot simply pull a permit and start. Before the Permit Management Office or your municipality authorise anything, the written recommendation of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture is required. And its reach surprises: the Act expressly says the ruling covers fittings “including signs,” architectural features, colour and other characteristics. That is, your façade colour and your business sign are within it. If the zone is one of tourist interest rather than historic, the Tourism Company plays the same role. What is most worth knowing before starting work without a permit sits in Article 7: besides the fine, the court may freeze the issuing of permits on that property for up to three years, and the sentence is annotated in the Property Registry.

The Act reaches every person wishing to erect, rebuild, extend, alter, restore, demolish or in any way develop a building, structure or appurtenance within the limits of an old or historic zone or a zone of tourist interest. It does not distinguish public from private property: Article 3 says the zones may include one or more lots or appurtenances, or only part of them, “whether of public or private property.” And Article 6 goes further, expressly reaching government agencies and municipalities where the action modifies traffic or alters the buildings, structures, places, plazas, parks or areas of the zone. The Act exempts no minor works: Article 2 names colour and signs among what is ruled upon.

• In an old or historic zone, the written recommendation of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture before any construction or use permit is authorised (Article 1).Verified against the official source
• In a zone of tourist interest, the prior written recommendation of the Tourism Company before granting any franchise, permit, authorisation or licence (Article 1).Verified against the official source
• Prior authorisation to build, rebuild, alter, extend, move or partially or totally demolish any building within the zone (Article 3).Verified against the official source

• Every project, plan, elevation and the information accompanying each application for a construction, use or other permit to be carried out within the zone (Article 4).

1. 1

   Step 1: First find out whether you are inside a zone

   The Act describes the zones but does not map them. Article 3 empowers the Planning Board to establish them — old or historic ones in coordination with the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, tourist-interest ones in coordination with the Tourism Company — anywhere in Puerto Rico, and clarifies a zone may include one or more lots, or only part of them, of public or private property. They are established by the prior-public-hearing procedure of the Board’s organic act, and the resolutions are effective and have force of law fifteen days after adoption. The same procedure applies to discontinuing, extending, reducing or modifying the area. This Act publishes no list or map of the zones in force, and we do not invent one.

2. 2

   Step 2: What distinguishes a historic zone from a tourist one

   It matters because it changes who must recommend. Article 3 defines an old or historic zone as the area within which the buildings, structures, appurtenances and places are of basic and vital importance for cultural and tourism development by their association with history; by their peculiar Spanish colonial style, including colour, proportions, form and architectural details; or by being part of or related to a plaza, park or area whose design must be conserved per a plan of cultural, historic or architectural motives. And it defines a zone of tourist interest as any area with natural and artificial attractions developed or with tourist potential — beaches, lakes, bays, historic places and spots of great natural beauty — within which the buildings, structures and natural beauty are of basic and vital importance for tourism.

3. 3

   Step 3: What exactly is evaluated, and why colour is included

   Article 2 is the one that surprises most. The agency shall rule “on the propriety of each and every fitting (including signs), architectural features, colour, and other characteristics of any building, structure, appurtenance or part of it” one wishes to erect, rebuild, extend, alter, restore, demolish or in any way develop within the zone. And it adds that in both cases the ruling must include the intended use of the property. In old or historic zones that ruling requires the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture’s endorsement; in tourist-interest ones, the Tourism Company’s. That is why repainting a façade another colour or changing a business sign are not things that fall outside the procedure.

4. 4

   Step 4: Who recommends and who decides

   They are two distinct steps and should not be confused. Who approves or authorises the permit is the Permit Management Office or the Autonomous Municipality of Hierarchy I to V. But Article 4 says it will do so “after the written recommendation of the Tourism Company of Puerto Rico in the case of tourist-interest zones, and of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in the case of old or historic zones.” In deciding, the agency gives consideration to the design and general arrangement, material, colour and architectural style of the building, or to the use or project, and to its adequate relation to the features of the buildings in the immediate neighbourhood, and may request any information it deems necessary.

5. 5

   Step 5: If refused, they must tell you how to fix it

   This is a concrete right many people do not exercise. Article 4 provides that on disapproval, total or partial, the Permit Management Office and the municipalities “shall state the reasons for such action, in turn making recommendations on the design, arrangement, materials or colours most proper for the property, project or other work in question, based on the norms or sketch the Planning Board has determined or deems proper for the zone in which that project sits.” That is, the refusal cannot be a plain no: it must come with reasons and with recommendations on what would be acceptable.

6. 6

   Step 6: How a refusal is reviewed

   Article 5 sets the route. The applicant may seek review before the Administrative Reviews Division of the Permit Management Office, within twenty days counted from the date of filing in the record of a copy of the notice of the final action or determination, following the procedure of Act 161-2009. If the filing date differs from the date of deposit in the mail, the term counts from the mail deposit. And it carries two useful precisions: filing the administrative review is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to going to the Court of Appeals, but its timely filing tolls the terms for seeking review before that Court.

7. 7

   Step 7: The rule that binds the government too

   Article 6 is useful if what worries you is someone else’s work. No action may be implemented, without the prior approval of the Planning Board or the Permit Management Office as applicable, in an old or historic or tourist-interest zone that modifies traffic or alters the buildings, structures, appurtenances, places, plazas, parks or areas of the zone “by private persons or government agencies, including the municipalities.” And the agency may not approve them without the written recommendations of the Institute or the Tourism Company. Additionally, the Board may open the corresponding investigation motu proprio, at the request of those agencies, of any official or body, or “of any interested person.”

8. 8

   Step 8: The penalty, which goes beyond the fine

   Article 7 has two parts and the second is the one that bites. First, any person who breaches the Act or any regulation promulgated to implement it shall receive a minimum fine of five hundred dollars and a maximum of five thousand “per event or infraction.” Second: “The court shall further specify in the sentence a term, no longer than three (3) years, during which no construction or use permits may be issued on properties where this Act or any related regulation has been breached. The court shall notify that sentence to the corresponding Property Registry for its annotation therein.” That is, the sanction attaches to the property, not only to the person, and is written into the Registry.

The permit is applied for before the Permit Management Office or the corresponding Autonomous Municipality of Hierarchy I to V. The prior written recommendation is issued by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in old or historic zones and by the Tourism Company in tourist-interest zones. Review of a refusal goes to the Administrative Reviews Division of the Permit Management Office, and then to the Court of Appeals. The Act publishes no addresses, forms or portals, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Believing the Permit Management Office’s permit is enough: in a historic zone the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture’s written recommendation is needed first.
• Thinking repainting the façade needs no procedure: Article 2 expressly names colour among what is ruled upon.
• Putting up a sign without consulting: fittings “including signs” are within the ruling.
• Assuming demolishing only part falls outside: Article 3 covers partial or total demolition and also moving.
• Confusing a historic zone with a tourist-interest zone: in the first the Institute of Culture recommends, in the second the Tourism Company.
• Accepting a refusal without reasons: the Act requires stating the reasons and recommending the most proper design, arrangement, materials or colours.
• Letting the twenty days pass: that is the term to seek review before the Administrative Reviews Division.
• Believing administrative review must be exhausted: it is not a jurisdictional requirement for going to the Court of Appeals, though filing it tolls the terms.
• Underestimating the sanction: besides the five hundred to five thousand dollar fine per event, the court may freeze permits on the property for up to three years and annotate it in the Property Registry.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP)

  ICP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov