What a plan must carry: the fundamental elements

It is Section 2.8.2.4 of Chapter 2.8 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, within the Plan Drawing Standard. It is the list of what the system expects to find in any plan submitted: which things are drawn, which are annotated, and which goes in as a form. The chapter’s other rules say how each is drawn and in which layer; this one says which they are.

It applies to every plan governed by the Plan Drawing Standard submitted to the permit process. The elements apply as the project warrants: plans that by the type of procedure, content or area they cover have no information on one of them are exempt from incorporating it.

• Including the fundamental elements the plan warrants according to the type of procedure, the content and the area it covers.Verified against the official source
• Assigning each fundamental element to its layer in the DWG file, whether as a drawing, an annotation, or information required in the Control Stations Certification.Verified against the official source
• Complying with the drawing specifications of each fundamental element, except for the Control Stations Certification, which is a form.Verified against the official source
• Using the layers whose nomenclature ends in AB when the plan is an as-built.Verified against the official source
• Following the Corps of Engineers’ A/E/C CAD Standard nomenclature for additional elements not on the standard’s list of fundamental elements.Verified against the official source
• Annotating the adjoining owners: the owners of parcels or estates contiguous to the project’s, which the standard classifies as an annotation and not a graphic element.Verified against the official source

• The standard’s seed file, whose layers include those of the fundamental elements, the as-built ones and room for additional elements.

1. 1

   Step 1: See which elements your project warrants

   The rule does not demand fifteen elements on every plan. It demands those its application warrants, and it says expressly that plans which, by the type of procedure, content or area they cover, have no information on some of the fundamental elements are exempt from incorporating them. A plan with no coast carries no Maritime Terrestrial Zone boundary, no coastal surveillance servitude and no rescue zone; one with no quarry carries no extraction area.

2. 2

   Step 2: What gets drawn

   Thirteen of the table’s fifteen elements are graphic elements: the parcels and structures forming part of the survey; the topography, the contour lines describing the topographic relief of the parcels included in the plan; the stations or control points used to georeference the survey; the documented right of way locating or affecting the parcel under study; the public-use parcel — green areas, roads, creeks, rivers, green strip, reservoirs; the conservation servitudes, an area designated to guarantee the protection of an area of natural value; the street axes, the centre line of the roads the plan contains; the area of extraction of material from the earth’s crust; the Maritime Terrestrial Zone limit as defined in the laws and regulations of Puerto Rico; and two servitudes related to that zone, the coastal surveillance one and the rescue zone.

3. 3

   Step 3: What gets annotated and what goes in a form

   The other two are not drawn. The adjoining owners — the owners of parcels or estates contiguous to the project’s — are an annotation, not a graphic element. And there are two forms: the Control Stations Certification, which the table describes as the digital form where the required technical information is recorded and classifies as an attribute block, and the Street Name, the digital form where the street’s name is recorded within the drawing, also an attribute block.

4. 4

   Step 4: Each element, in its layer

   The fundamental elements include different types of objects and information, and each has a layer in the DWG file to which it is assigned, whether as a drawing, an annotation, or information required in the Control Stations Certification. Except for the last, the rest of the fundamental elements carry drawing specifications they must comply with. The chapter’s layer list has nineteen entries for fifteen elements, because some elements occupy more than one: control points take three layers, one per control type, and topography takes two, major and minor contours.

5. 5

   Step 5: You may add more, with rules

   Establishing these elements does not prevent including additional elements in the plans. The variety of layers the seed file contains provides for including elements additional to the nineteen required, plus those made in the case of as-built, where other layers are used whose nomenclature ends in the terms AB. And for additional elements not present in the standard’s list of fundamental elements, it is recommended to use the nomenclature established in the Corps of Engineers’ A/E/C CAD Standard.

6. 6

   Step 6: How many there are, depending which rule you ask

   A note on the source. The chapter gives four different counts of the same thing. Rule 2.8.5 speaks of seventeen fundamental elements. Rule 2.8.6 says eight were identified and its own table lists thirteen. This section’s table describes fifteen. And this same section’s text speaks of nineteen required, which is the number of entries in the layer list, not of elements. We publish every figure as printed and reconcile no count. This section also refers the reader to Sections 2.8.5.13 and 2.8.6.1, but Rule 2.8.5 has no Section 2.8.5.13: its sections end at 2.8.5.11.

The fundamental elements are incorporated into the DWG file submitted through the OGPe’s Unified Information System, in the layers the standard’s seed file already carries.

• Drawing the adjoining owners as a graphic element when the standard classifies them as an annotation.
• Creating your own layers for elements that already have one in the seed file.
• Using the ordinary layers on an as-built plan instead of those ending in AB.
• Naming additional layers by your own criteria instead of the A/E/C CAD Standard.
• Assuming all fifteen elements must be included even when the project has no information on one.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Planning Board

  jp

  jp.pr.gov

• OGPe Single Business Portal

  ogpe

  www.permisos.pr.gov