District C-T Tourist Commercial: commerce below, housing above and a gallery on the pavement

It is Rule 6.1.12 of Chapter 6.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. District C-T, Tourist Commercial, is established in the Tourist Interest Zones to promote orderly and aesthetic development and to qualify commercial and residential areas of intermediate and semi-high intensity. The regulation explains the underlying idea: the permitted commercial uses support, complement or supply the needs of the communities and visitors, without the commercial activities significantly harming the tourist character that must prevail in the zone. The rule carries its use table, its list of exceptions and a parameter table with two intensity levels.

The uses and parameters apply to properties qualified C-T. Commercial or service uses are permitted on the first two levels, and above the second level residential and guest-house uses are permitted; in the intermediate tourist commercial column, the table repeats that residential uses are permitted from the second storey up. Religious institutions by exception are considered on lots of up to two cuerdas. Nightclubs, discotheques, theatres and other night entertainment venues require a public hearing prior to authorisation. And exceptions granted remain subject to compliance with the conditions established and with the Regulation’s other provisions.

• Siting the commercial or service uses on the first two levels, and the residential and guest-house uses above the second level.Verified against the official source
• In light tourist commercial: a lot of at least four hundred and fifty square metres, a minimum width of fifteen metres, maximum occupation of seventy-five per cent and maximum gross floor area of three hundred per cent on interior lots and three hundred and forty per cent on corner lots.Verified against the official source
• In intermediate tourist commercial: a lot of at least one thousand square metres, a minimum width of twenty metres, occupation not exceeding seventy-five per cent on interior lots nor eighty-five per cent on corner lots, and gross floor area not exceeding five hundred per cent on interior lots nor five hundred and sixty per cent on corner lots.Verified against the official source
• In intermediate tourist commercial: replacing the front yard with a gallery whose depth equals the front-yard requirement and whose height is no less than five metres nor more than seven metres, in every new construction.Verified against the official source
• Paving the front yard in the same way as the pavement it borders.Verified against the official source
• Providing every residential use with street access and parking independent of the access to the commercial uses and their parking.Verified against the official source
• To convert this district’s residential units to commercial purposes: showing that all the units sharing an access are vacant, that their owners agree to the proposed change of use and that the additional parking has been provided.Verified against the official source
• Keeping eighteen metres of separation between principal buildings or areas on the same lot.Verified against the official source
• For a hospital or sanatorium for contagious diseases or the treatment of the mentally ill: siting it no less than fifty metres from every property line of the lot.Verified against the official source
• For a religious institution by exception: a lot of up to two cuerdas, yards no smaller than twice the size required in the district, a minimum separation of fifty linear metres from any lot with a petrol station, and no loudspeakers or horns on the exterior of the structure.Verified against the official source

• Recommendation of the Tourism Company prior to authorisation, for signs and advertisements.
• Land development concept, for the religious institution proposing other buildings for related uses on the same premises.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the district is for

   Section 6.1.12.1 explains it in three paragraphs. This commercial district in the Tourist Interest Zones is established to promote orderly and aesthetic development, and to qualify commercial and residential areas of intermediate and semi-high intensity. The permitted commercial uses support, complement or supply the needs of the communities and visitors, without the commercial activities significantly harming the tourist character that must prevail in the zone. And by its location and availability of infrastructure, the district includes land that may be or has been developed at a very high intensity.

2. 2

   Step 2: Commerce below, housing above

   The vertical organisation rule is what defines the district: commercial or service uses are permitted on the first two levels, and above the second level residential and guest-house uses are permitted. The use table groups the options in five columns. Commerce: retail sale, pharmacies, florist and art gallery. Residential: single-family dwelling, patio house, terraced house, apartment house, tiny houses, mobile home, bed and breakfast, and short-term supplementary lodging. Guest houses: agro-lodge, hostel, condohotel, tourist villas, hotel, eco-lodge and guest houses. Services: services as defined in the regulation, travel agencies, restaurants, childcare centres, specialised lodgings, car or equipment rental, animal treatment hospital that is soundproofed and keeps no animals outside the building, gym, barbershop, beauty salon, laundry, professional offices, and banking and financial institution. And others: museum, startups, and medical cannabis dispensary with cultivation as an accessory use.

3. 3

   Step 3: Light tourist commercial parameters

   The minimum lot area is four hundred and fifty square metres and the minimum width fifteen metres. The maximum occupation area is seventy-five per cent. The maximum gross floor area may not exceed three hundred per cent on interior lots nor three hundred and forty per cent on corner lots, and the gross floor area of any storey above the first may in no case exceed the district’s maximum permitted occupation percentage. Hotels’ common areas do not count toward the gross floor area computation. And the density allows one basic dwelling unit per hundred square metres of lot area.

4. 4

   Step 4: Intermediate tourist commercial parameters

   The minimum area rises to one thousand square metres and the minimum width to twenty metres. Occupation may not exceed seventy-five per cent on interior lots, nor eighty-five per cent on corner lots. The gross floor area may not exceed five hundred per cent on interior lots nor five hundred and sixty per cent on corner lots, with the same two conditions on storeys above the first and hotels’ common areas. The density allows one dwelling unit per seventy square metres of lot area, and the table repeats that residential uses are permitted from the second storey up.

5. 5

   Step 5: The gallery that replaces the front yard

   In light tourist commercial a front yard no less than two metres nor more than three is required, and it will be paved in the same way as the pavement it borders. In the intermediate one, the front yard is no less than three metres nor more than four, also paved like the pavement, and then comes the rule that changes the façade: every new construction must replace the front yard with a gallery whose depth equals the front-yard requirement and whose height will be no less than five metres nor more than seven metres. It is the reason new buildings in these zones have arcades.

6. 6

   Step 6: Rear and side yards

   In the light column, the rear yard has a depth no less than three metres. In the intermediate one, no less than three metres nor less than one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater; and there is an outlet for corner lots forming part of a wholly commercial block: the rear yard may be located in the lot’s inner quarter with its equivalent area, except that in those cases no yard shall be smaller than three by five metres. As for side yards, in the light column a side yard no less than two metres wide is required when the lot borders laterally on a residential or public-use district, and outside that condition the side yard is optional. In the intermediate one, two side yards are required, each no less than two metres wide nor less than one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater; the building may be allowed to observe no side yards on the first four storeys, except where the lot borders a residential or public-use district; and the side yard, if it exists, shall be no less than two metres. In both cases, any rear or side yard bordering a road is treated as a front yard and must meet this district’s front-yard requirements.

7. 7

   Step 7: Housing does not just become a business

   Both columns include the same protection. Any residential use proposed must be provided with street access and parking independent of the access to the commercial uses and their parking. And the residential units in this district may not be used for commercial purposes unless three things are shown at once: that all the residential units sharing an access are vacant, that their owners agree to the proposed change of use, and that the additional parking has been provided. The intermediate column adds that this additional parking must be what is needed to supply the increase in the use’s intensity, and that the restriction runs once the construction of the residential units is authorised.

8. 8

   Step 8: Uses by exception

   There are three. The nightclub, discotheque, theatre and other night entertainment venues, which require a public hearing prior to authorisation. The hospital, general medicine hospital, nursing home, sanatorium and institution for the treatment of the mentally ill, with a distance rule: buildings devoted principally to a hospital or sanatorium for contagious diseases or the treatment of the mentally ill shall be sited no less than fifty metres from every property line of the lot. And religious institutions, such as churches and temples, on lots of up to two cuerdas.

9. 9

   Step 9: The religious institution’s conditions

   The construction of other buildings for related uses on the same premises may be permitted, including the minister’s or parish priest’s residence or teaching buildings, provided a land development concept is presented and the minimum lot-area requirements set for each specific use are met. The lot area occupied by the related uses will not be counted in determining the lot area required for religious purposes. The lots must keep a minimum separation of fifty linear metres from any other lot where a petrol station is sited or has previously been authorised, measured between the nearest points. The buildings shall keep yards no smaller than twice the size required in the district. Where the required yards cannot be observed, OGPe may require sound insulation or other ways of mitigating the effects of noise. And the installation of loudspeakers or horns on the exterior of the structure is not permitted.

10. 10

    Step 10: Projections, signs and a note on the source

    In both columns, cornices, eaves, roofs and other architectural features may extend into the required yards up to one metre, and the extension of open cantilevered balconies up to one metre into the required yards is allowed, provided they keep a separation of no less than one and a half metres from any side or rear boundary line of the lot. The separation between principal buildings or areas on the same lot is eighteen metres. And signs and advertisements are conditioned on the Tourism Company’s recommendation prior to authorisation. A note on the source: the parameters section orders conformity with "Section 6.1.1.10 of this Chapter", but 6.1.1.10 governs uses by consultation in special areas; the design parameters are in Section 6.1.1.11, which is what the chapter’s other district rules cite. We reproduce the cross-reference as printed and do not correct it.

Permits are processed before OGPe, an Authorised Professional or an Autonomous Municipality with Hierarchy I to III, according to each one’s scope. The exceptions — night entertainment, the hospital and the religious institution — are filed before the Junta Adjudicativa, and night entertainment carries a public hearing prior to authorisation. The Tourism Company’s recommendation for signs and advertisements is requested from that corporation. The siting of a medical cannabis dispensary is the exclusive jurisdiction of OGPe at central level under Section 6.1.1.8 of the same chapter. And the property’s qualification is read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps.

• Placing a commercial or service use above the second level, when the regulation permits them on the first two.
• Planning housing on the first storey of a building in the intermediate tourist commercial column, where residential uses are permitted from the second storey up.
• Applying the interior-lot gross floor area to a corner lot, or the reverse.
• Counting a hotel’s common areas in the gross floor area computation, when the regulation excludes them.
• Designing a storey above the first with a gross floor area greater than the district’s maximum occupation percentage.
• Omitting the gallery in a new construction in intermediate tourist commercial.
• Building the gallery with a height under five metres or over seven.
• Leaving the front yard unpaved in the same way as the pavement it borders.
• Computing the intermediate column’s rear yard at a fixed three metres, without comparing it with one fifth of the building’s height.
• Using the first-four-storeys side-yard exemption on a lot bordering a residential or public-use district.
• Treating as a side or rear yard a strip bordering a road, when the regulation treats it as a front yard.
• Sharing the access and parking between the residential and the commercial uses.
• Converting flats to commercial use without all the units sharing an access being vacant and without their owners’ agreement.
• Opening a nightclub, discotheque or theatre without the public hearing prior to authorisation.
• Siting a hospital or sanatorium for contagious diseases or treatment of the mentally ill less than fifty metres from a property line of the lot.
• Installing loudspeakers or horns on the exterior of a church or temple authorised by exception.
• Processing signs or advertisements without the Tourism Company’s recommendation.

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