If your lot is smaller than the district requires: the tables that do apply

They are three sections of Rule 6.1.1 of Chapter 6.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, the ones the rest of the chapter cites again and again. Section 6.1.1.5 relates the Land Use Plan’s soil classifications to the qualification districts that may be assigned in each. Section 6.1.1.6 sets the conversion to basic dwelling units, which is how the regulation counts density when the flats have more or fewer bedrooms than the basic unit. And Section 6.1.1.7 is the one that rescues residential lots whose area is smaller than their district requires, giving them their own occupation and yard tables.

The occupation and yard tables apply to residential lots whose area is smaller than the qualification district of the property requires. The rear-yard table also applies to residential lots smaller than the district’s where the structures are two storeys and the required depths cannot be met. The conversion to basic dwelling units applies to multifamily projects proposing units with more or fewer bedrooms than a basic unit, for infrastructure, parking and any other density calculation; and to guest-house projects, with the express exception of condohotels, tourist villas and bed and breakfast.

• Computing the gross floor area as twice the maximum occupation percentage corresponding to the lot’s size under Section 6.1.1.7’s table.Verified against the official source
• Applying the occupation area the table sets by lot size, from eight per cent at twenty thousand square metres or more to sixty-five per cent from four hundred and fifty down to two hundred square metres.Verified against the official source
• On lots under two hundred square metres: the increase over sixty-five per cent is five per cent with one wall on a side boundary and ten per cent with two walls on the side boundaries.Verified against the official source
• If no rear yard is required: that the wall built up to the rear boundary be a blind wall of non-combustible material.Verified against the official source
• On lots under twelve metres wide: computing the sum of the yards with the formula Yards = [(A-7)/5]*4.5, where A is the lot’s width in metres; if the sum is two metres or more the lot will have two yards, and otherwise only one.Verified against the official source
• Not placing windows within five feet of the boundary.Verified against the official source
• In multifamily projects: converting the units to basic dwelling units at 0.4 per studio, 0.6 per one bedroom, 0.8 per two and 1.0 per three, with 0.2 additional per bedroom above three.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The rule that changes everything

   Section 6.1.1.7 opens with a sentence worth reading in full: on residential lots whose area is smaller than the qualification district of the property requires, the gross floor area, the occupation area, the rear yard and the side yards are computed with the tables the section itself includes. That is: a small lot is not left useless because it falls short of the district’s minimum area; it comes under another scale, more generous the smaller the lot. And the gross floor area has a rule of its own: it will equal twice the maximum occupation percentage.

2. 2

   Step 2: The occupation table by size

   The scale runs from the huge lot to the tiny one, and rises as the size falls. Twenty thousand square metres or more: eight per cent. Eight thousand: ten per cent. Six thousand: twelve. Four thousand: fifteen. Two thousand: thirty. One thousand: thirty-five. Nine hundred: thirty-seven. Eight hundred and fifty: thirty-eight and a half. Eight hundred: forty. Seven hundred and fifty: forty-two. Seven hundred: forty-four. Six hundred and fifty: forty-eight. Six hundred: fifty. Five hundred and fifty: fifty-five. Five hundred: sixty. And from four hundred and fifty down to two hundred square metres: sixty-five per cent. Remembering the gross-floor-area rule, a five-hundred-square-metre lot with sixty per cent occupation has one hundred and twenty per cent gross floor area.

3. 3

   Step 3: Under two hundred metres: the walls on the boundary

   For lots under two hundred square metres, the regulation allows an occupation area greater than sixty-five per cent, and conditions it on how the building is built. For buildings with one wall on one of the lot’s side boundaries, an increase of five per cent. For buildings with two walls on the side boundaries, an increase of ten per cent. That is: the extra occupation is earned by putting the building against the boundary, not by pulling it away.

4. 4

   Step 4: The rear yard by the lot’s depth

   Where the residential lot is smaller than the district’s, the structures are two storeys and the required depths cannot be met, a smaller rear yard is allowed on this scale, in metres of lot depth and metres of yard: thirty gives five; twenty-eight gives four sixty; twenty-six gives three eighty; twenty-five, twenty-four, twenty-two and twenty give three; nineteen gives two eighty; eighteen gives two sixty; seventeen gives two forty; sixteen gives two twenty; fifteen gives two; fourteen gives one eighty; thirteen gives one sixty; twelve gives one fifty; and under twelve gives zero. And there comes the door many look for: where no rear yard is required, the structure may cover up to the rear boundary, provided the wall built is a blind wall of non-combustible material.

5. 5

   Step 5: The side yards by lot width

   The side-yard table gives, for each minimum lot width in metres, the number of yards, the minimum width of each and the sum that may not fall lower. Twenty-five metres: two yards of four metres, sum no less than eight. Twenty-four: two of three eighty, sum seven eighty. Twenty-three: two of three sixty, sum seven forty. Twenty-two: two of three forty, sum seven. Twenty-one: two of three twenty, sum six sixty. Twenty: two of three, sum six forty. Nineteen: two of two seventy-five, sum six. Eighteen: two of two fifty, sum five seventy. Sixteen: two of two twenty-five, sum five forty. Fifteen, fourteen and thirteen: two of two metres, sum five. Twelve: two of two metres, sum four fifty. A note on the source: the table jumps from the eighteen-metre width to sixteen, with no row for seventeen.

6. 6

   Step 6: The formula for narrow lots

   For lots under twelve metres wide, the sum of the yards comes not from a table but from a formula the regulation prints thus: Yards = [(A-7)/5]*4.5, where A is the lot’s width in metres. The result decides how many yards there are: if the sum of the yards is two metres or more, the lot will have two yards; otherwise it will have only one. For lots under seven metres wide no side yards are required. And where no side yards are required, the structure may cover up to the corresponding boundaries provided the wall built on any side boundary line is a blind wall of non-combustible material. The closing is a neighbourliness rule: windows are not allowed within five feet of the boundary.

7. 7

   Step 7: The conversion to basic dwelling units

   Nearly every residential and commercial district in the chapter sets its density in basic dwelling units per square metres of lot, and refers to this section to convert. In multifamily projects proposing dwellings with more or fewer bedrooms than a basic unit — for infrastructure, parking and any other density calculation — the relation is: zero bedrooms, that is a studio, equals four tenths of a UBV; one bedroom, six tenths; two bedrooms, eight tenths; and three bedrooms, a full UBV. Where more than three bedrooms per unit are provided, each additional bedroom is computed at two tenths of a UBV. And for guest-house projects, one lodging unit or room equals four tenths of a UBV, except in condohotel, tourist villa and bed-and-breakfast projects.

8. 8

   Step 8: Which districts fit in each soil classification

   Section 6.1.1.5 explains the system’s other side: from the soil classifications set in the Land Use Plan, the qualifications are established. Urban Soil admits C-C, C-H, C-I, C-L, C-R, C-T, D-A, D-G, DTS, I, M, P-P, R-B, R-C, R-I, RC-E, RT-A, RT-I, R-U and S-H. Ordinary Rustic Soil admits A-G, ARD, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, DTS, I, P-P, R-E, R-G, RT-A, RT-I and S-H. Especially Protected Rustic Soil admits A-G, ARD, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, P-R, R-G and S-H. The SREP’s agricultural variants admit A-G, A-P, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, R-E, R-G and S-H; the ecological ones, A-B, A-G, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, P-P, P-R, R-E, R-G and S-H; the hydrological ones, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, P-R, R-E and S-H; and the landscape ones, C-H, C-R, D-A, D-G, P-P, P-R, R-E and S-H. A note on the source: the Ordinary Rustic Soil list includes an entry printed "Fe", matching no district named in the chapter; we reproduce it as printed and assign it no district.

These tables are applied within the construction permit or Permiso Único process before OGPe, the Autonomous Municipalities with Hierarchy I to III or an Authorised Professional. The property’s qualification and soil classification are read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps. The regulation publishes no separate process for relying on these tables: they are the ones that apply of their own terms when the lot’s area is smaller than the district requires.

• Assuming a lot smaller than the district’s area cannot be developed, without going to Section 6.1.1.7’s tables.
• Applying the district’s occupation percentage instead of the one the table sets by lot size.
• Forgetting that the gross floor area is twice the maximum occupation percentage.
• Counting on the five or ten per cent increase over sixty-five on lots of two hundred square metres or more: that increase is only for those under two hundred.
• Claiming the ten per cent increase with a single wall on a side boundary, when that figure requires two.
• Computing the rear yard from the district instead of from the lot’s actual depth.
• Building up to the rear boundary with a wall that is not a blind wall of non-combustible material.
• Using the side-yard table on a lot under twelve metres wide, where the formula applies.
• Leaving two side yards when the formula gives a sum under two metres, in which case one yard is what applies.
• Placing windows within five feet of the boundary.
• Counting each flat as one basic dwelling unit without applying the conversion by number of bedrooms.
• Applying the 0.4 UBV per room equivalence to a condohotel, a tourist villa or a bed and breakfast, which the regulation expressly excludes.

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