Safe Plans: four house designs OGPe gives you for free

It is a free set of base plans, so you do not start from zero. A construction plan is normally drawn by an architect or engineer for a fee, and for a family wanting to build a modest house that cost can be the difference between building with a permit and building informally. Safe Plans removes that line item: OGPe publishes the four already-designed, code-compliant models. What is still needed is a licensed professional to site the model on your specific lot — because a generic plan does not know where your land is, what slope it has or where the water runs — and who then files the Consolidated Construction Permit. Watch the name: on the same OGPe portal there is a filing called Authorization of Safe Plans (APS), which is a different thing. The APS is the filing by which a government entity, corporation, municipality, architect or engineer submits a plan to OGPe for approval so it can be repeated across different lots, and it costs one hundred dollars per individual residential model. That is not the filing of the family downloading the free models.

OGPe says the plans are made available to qualifying families, but that page does not publish the qualification criteria: it does not state a maximum income, nor a lot-ownership condition, nor a first-home requirement. This guide does not invent them. If you want to know whether you qualify, write to planosseguros@ddec.pr.gov, the address OGPe itself gives for more information about the programme. What is published is a use restriction, and it is categorical: these plans are not for commercial use or for sale.

• Hiring a licensed engineer or architect: it is each family’s responsibility to complete the design process with professional advice.Verified against the official source
• Taking the plans to an engineering or architecture office so they site the house on your lot and meet the final design requirements before applying for permits.Verified against the official source
• That the use is neither commercial nor for resale: OGPe warns that these plans are not for commercial use or for sale.Verified against the official source

• The files of the model you choose: the PDF documentation and, if your professional needs them, the plans in AutoCAD format.
• A Consolidated Construction Permit (PCOC), filed by the licensed professional through the Single Business Portal once the plans are certified.

1. 1

   Step 1: Choose among the four models

   The project consists of four modular social-interest housing models, identified as Model A, B, C and D. They come in one or two storeys, and in cement, in wood and in a combination of materials. They are modular designs: in a planned way and with a professional’s assistance, modules with more bedrooms can be added. The main module is a single-storey house of 20 by 24 feet with two bedrooms, living-dining room, kitchen, bathroom and balcony. Two modules can be added, of 10 by 24 feet each. If a family uses the plans with all the modules, the house would have up to five bedrooms and two bathrooms.

2. 2

   Step 2: Download the files, and be ready for their size

   Each model is published in two formats at docs.pr.gov: the PDF documentation and the AutoCAD plans compressed into a .rar file. The four models’ PDFs weigh between 8.5 and 10.5 megabytes. The AutoCAD files are far bigger: between 102 and 143 megabytes each. If you are on mobile data, download the PDF and leave the AutoCAD to your engineer, who is the one who will use it; the .rar also requires a program to decompress it. A note on content: the Model A documentation is a 162-page PDF with no text layer, that is, drawing sheets. It is not a manual with written instructions, it is the plans.

3. 3

   Step 3: Take the plan to a licensed engineer or architect

   OGPe says it plainly: it will be each family’s responsibility to complete the construction-plan design process with the professional advice of a licensed engineer or architect. You must take these safe plans to an engineering or architecture office so they site the house on your lot and meet the final design requirements prior to applying for construction permits. That step is neither optional nor decorative: the model plan does not contemplate your land, and the final design requirements depend on where you are going to build.

4. 4

   Step 4: The professional files the Consolidated Construction Permit

   Once the plans are certified, the licensed professional will file a Consolidated Construction Permit (PCOC) with OGPe and complete the corresponding permitting through the Single Business Portal digital platform. You do not file it: it is filed by the licensed professional who certified the plans. And there is something worth knowing before counting on a date: the PCOC manual says that projects classified as Green Projects or Safe Plans Projects will not be considered ministerial. That means your permit cannot take the fast route a private Authorized Professional can sign, but rather OGPe’s regular evaluation flow, and that the system will charge you 10% of the total first and the remaining 90% after the analyst validates.

5. 5

   Step 5: Do not confuse the programme with the APS filing

   The Authorization of Safe Plans (APS) is a separate filing, and its manual describes it thus: OGPe grants this approval as a stage ahead of filing the construction permit application, where the projects involve series construction of buildings or structures or their repetition across different lots, so that those details and documents need not later be filed for each individual lot. Who may file it: any government entity, corporation, municipality, architect or engineer authorized to practise. The filing cost is one hundred dollars per individual residential model. And a detail worth knowing: the manual says approved safe plans will be displayed and available at OGPe in digital format with the owners’ or proponents’ information, indicating whether they carry any cost so interested parties can access them. That is, there are approved safe plans that do cost, because their owner set a price on them. The four models of the FEMA and OGPe programme do not.

The four models are downloaded from the Safe Plans section of permisos.pr.gov, which links to files hosted at docs.pr.gov. For more information about the programme, OGPe gives the email planosseguros@ddec.pr.gov. The Consolidated Construction Permit is filed by your licensed professional through the Single Business Portal.

• Believing Safe Plans cost $100: that is the APS filing fee, filed by a professional, not the download of the models.
• Thinking that with the downloaded plan you can already apply for the permit: a licensed engineer or architect must site the house on your lot.
• Building from the model as-is, without adapting it to the land or to the final design requirements.
• Using the plans for a commercial project or reselling them, when OGPe expressly prohibits it.
• Downloading the AutoCAD file on a phone without knowing it weighs over 100 megabytes and comes compressed as .rar.
• Assuming qualification criteria OGPe does not publish instead of writing to planosseguros@ddec.pr.gov and asking.
• Expecting the model PDF to carry written instructions: they are plan sheets.
• Counting on the fast ministerial route: the PCOC manual expressly excludes Safe Plans Projects.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  www.permisos.pr.gov

• Applicant Manual APS — Authorization of Safe Plans

  ogpe

  docs.pr.gov

• Applicant Manual PCOC — Consolidated Construction Permit

  ogpe

  docs.pr.gov

• Model A documentation (PDF)

  ogpe

  docs.pr.gov

• Model B documentation (PDF)

  ogpe

  docs.pr.gov