Public access to the beaches: the metres the law requires and what nobody may close

They are Rule 6.4.1 and the first two sections of Rule 6.4.2 of Chapter 6.4 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, the chapter devoted to the coastal zone and to access to Puerto Rico’s beaches and coasts. Rule 6.4.1 sets the chapter’s purpose, whom and what it applies to, and the Planning Board’s power to adopt special regulations for certain areas. Section 6.4.2.1 governs public access: when it must be provided, how it is dedicated, how far apart the accesses must be, when an exemption is possible and what counts as an obstruction. And Section 6.4.2.2 gathers the other coastal considerations: the separation zone, the maritime-terrestrial zone demarcation, natural reserves, natural character, development intensity, sanitary discharges, erosion control, solid waste and lighting.

The chapter applies to and covers every construction, reconstruction, demolition or alteration of buildings, land segregations, development, urbanisations and any other project proposed within Puerto Rico’s Coastal Zone and the adjacent islands within its jurisdiction; every transaction of public land or public improvement within the Coastal Zone carried out by an officer or body of the Government of Puerto Rico; all land within the Coastal Zone, including submerged land and land under navigable waters, when determined necessary to implement the Regulation; and every natural or juridical person, public or private, and any grouping of them. The requirement to provide public access applies to every authorised project bordering a maritime or lacustrine shore. The twenty-metre separation zone applies to every project for the construction of buildings, for segregation or for urbanisation of land fronting Puerto Rico’s coast or beaches. And the CES Plan applies to every project whose principal property exceeds nine hundred square metres and includes earth-moving or the use of contaminants.

• That every authorised project bordering a maritime or lacustrine shore provide one or more public access routes from the public road serving the project to another public road parallel to the coast, or to the coast itself, the beach or the lacustrine body.Verified against the official source
• Dedicating those routes to public traffic by public deed in favour of the municipality where the project is sited or of the DTOP, or by the approval of a Registration Plan and by public deed where applicable.Verified against the official source
• Duly signposting the accesses with the beach’s name or the name of the sector of special interest and any other pertinent information.Verified against the official source
• In areas qualified for urban districts: a maximum separation of eight hundred metres between vehicular accesses and four hundred metres between a pedestrian access and any other; up to one thousand two hundred and six hundred respectively on lots segregated before the Regulation took effect, if there is difficulty meeting the previous maxima.Verified against the official source
• In areas qualified for non-urban districts: a maximum separation of one thousand six hundred metres between vehicular accesses and four hundred metres between a pedestrian access and any other.Verified against the official source
• Keeping existing public accesses to beaches, coasts and lacustrine shores free of obstructions.Verified against the official source
• Dedicating to public use a strip of land of twenty metres minimum width, parallel to and measured from the maritime-terrestrial zone, in every project for the construction of buildings, for segregation or for urbanisation fronting the coast or beaches.Verified against the official source
• Not erecting permanent structures on the thirty-metre-wide strip of land adjoining the previous one.Verified against the official source
• That every project bordering a beach provide sufficient bins, have an efficient solid waste collection system that includes the beach sector, and provide bins for collecting recyclable material.Verified against the official source
• That development works bordering coasts and beaches retain the natural character of the vegetation, topographic features, coastal forms and a positive balance for the natural environment over the development.Verified against the official source
• Taking into account, for the lighting characteristics, the Regulation for the Control and Prevention of Light Pollution, Regulation No. 8786 of the DRNA, and Act 218-2008.Verified against the official source

• Maritime-terrestrial zone demarcation plan certified by the DRNA, to be submitted along with the other documents in every project for the lotification, urbanisation and development of land, and for the construction, alteration, extension and uses of structures or buildings on land bordering the shore.
• Public deed dedicating the public access routes in favour of the municipality or of the DTOP, or an approved Registration Plan with its public deed where applicable.
• Erosion and water-body contamination control plan (CES Plan), approved by the DRNA and with the recommendations of the Soil Conservation Committee of the DA, DRNA and EPA, in every project whose principal property exceeds nine hundred square metres and includes earth-moving or the use of contaminants.
• DRNA and EPA permits for sanitary discharges proposed on the maritime shore outside beach sectors and lacustrine shores.

1. 1

   Step 1: Why the chapter exists and whom it binds

   The purpose is declared in the first section: to guide and control the use and development of land and bodies of water in Puerto Rico’s coastal zone, its coasts and beaches, and to require, promote or prohibit, based on the general welfare, access to Puerto Rico’s beaches. And the application is broad: it covers every construction, reconstruction, demolition or alteration of buildings, segregations, development, urbanisations and any other project within the Coastal Zone and the adjacent islands; every transaction of public land or public improvement within the Coastal Zone by the Government; all land within the Coastal Zone, including submerged land and land under navigable waters, when determined necessary; and every natural or juridical person, public or private, and any grouping of them. The Planning Board may also adopt special regulations for the Natural Reserve and Special Planning Areas of the Coastal Zone Management Programme, and those special regulations and sectoral plans shall prevail over any other statutory land-ordering provision.

2. 2

   Step 2: Public access is mandatory

   The rule reads in one go: it is a mandatory requirement that every authorised project bordering a maritime or lacustrine shore provide one or more public access routes leading through the project or alongside it, from the public road serving it to another public road parallel to the coast, or to the coast itself, to the beach or to the lacustrine body. And drawing it is not enough: the dedication of these routes to public traffic shall be made by public deed in favour of the municipality where the project is sited or of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, or by the approval of a Registration Plan and by public deed, where applicable. Besides, these accesses shall be duly signposted with the beach’s name or the name of the sector of special interest and any other pertinent information.

3. 3

   Step 3: How far apart the accesses may be

   Where a public access cannot be provided by a continuous public road bordering and approximately parallel to the coast, beach or lacustrine shore, maximum separations shall be observed. In areas qualified for urban districts: eight hundred metres between vehicular accesses and four hundred metres between a pedestrian access and any other; and for projects on lots segregated before the Regulation took effect that separation may be increased to one thousand two hundred metres between vehicular accesses and up to six hundred metres between a pedestrian access and any other, if there is difficulty meeting the previous maxima. In areas qualified for non-urban districts: one thousand six hundred metres between vehicular accesses and four hundred metres between a pedestrian access and any other. Note that the four-hundred-metre pedestrian figure is the same in urban and non-urban areas.

4. 4

   Step 4: The six exemptions

   Certain projects may be exempted from the requirement to provide access to the coast, beach or lacustrine shore where one of six situations occurs. Where adequate public accessibility exists at a distance less than the maximum separation the Regulation permits. Where the land’s topography makes the access an insurmountable hazard to the public. Where the proposed development is a relatively small project, whose lot to be developed does not exceed two thousand square metres. Where the coastal resources’ limitations cannot withstand intense public use or providing additional accesses would result in use greater than the estimated capacity of the coast, public beach or lacustrine shore. Where public safety reasons so advise or where the sector is dangerous for recreational or sporting activities. And where the proposed access adversely affects agricultural units or natural, historic or cultural resources.

5. 5

   Step 5: What counts as obstructing an access

   On accesses that already exist, the regulation is explicit and names the conduct. Public accesses to beaches, coasts and lacustrine shores shall be kept free of obstructions. The construction, without obtaining a permit for it, of fences, railings and maritime buoys with "No Pase" signs or the like; the excavation of the pavement or of ditches across the public access; or the construction of structures within the access easement, are considered obstructions to the access and a violation of this Regulation. It is the part of the chapter that most directly serves anyone who finds a path to the beach closed.

6. 6

   Step 6: The twenty metres and the thirty metres

   The separation zone is the rule that most limits a coastal project’s edge. Every project for the construction of buildings, for segregation or for urbanisation of land fronting Puerto Rico’s coast or beaches shall require that a strip of land of twenty metres minimum width, parallel to and measured from the maritime-terrestrial zone, be dedicated to public use. And no permanent structures shall be erected on a thirty-metre-wide strip of land adjoining the previous one. In practice that is fifty metres from the maritime-terrestrial zone before the first permanent structure appears: twenty of public use and thirty without construction.

7. 7

   Step 7: The DRNA demarcation and its five years

   Every project for the lotification, urbanisation and development of land, as well as for the construction, alteration, extension and uses of structures or buildings on land bordering the shore, must submit along with the other documents and requirements the maritime-terrestrial zone demarcation plan, certified by the DRNA. The regulation clarifies what that certification is and is not: it shall not be understood to grant permanent property rights, as what it represents is the limit of the maritime-terrestrial zone at the plan’s date, which could vary when nature alters the coast’s natural contour. The validity of the demarcations certified by the DRNA shall be five years. And where by natural causes or human alteration a change in the coast is caused, a new demarcation may be required at any time before the five-year term.

8. 8

   Step 8: Reserves, natural character and intensity

   Three substantive rules. Any new segregation, development work or project that may deteriorate or destroy Natural Reserve Areas, coasts or beaches or other important natural resources recognised or designated for preservation by the DRNA, or so determined by the Planning Board on its own analysis, is prohibited. Projects near or adjoining the coasts and beaches that may deteriorate or destroy areas of historic, aesthetic, recreational, ecological or cultural importance recognised or recommended for conservation by the ICP, the DRNA or the Board shall be exhaustively analysed. Authorised development works bordering coasts and beaches shall retain the natural character of the vegetation, topographic features, coastal forms and a positive balance for the natural environment over the development, except where access is to be provided and the vegetation, being very dense, prevents it. And on intensity: internal development parallel to the coast shall be avoided as far as possible, promoting that such land be kept in its natural state.

9. 9

   Step 9: Discharges, erosion, rubbish and lighting

   Sanitary discharges to the beach and to adjoining bodies of water in beach sectors or on lacustrine shores are prohibited; on the rest of the maritime shore only discharges holding the permits required by the DRNA and the EPA may be permitted. Every project whose principal property exceeds nine hundred square metres and includes earth-moving or the use of contaminants shall submit an erosion and water-body contamination control plan — the CES Plan — approved by the DRNA and with the recommendations of the Soil Conservation Committee of the Department of Agriculture, the DRNA and the EPA; its preventive measures shall be observed during construction and the permanent ones shall be provided as part of the project. Every project bordering a beach must provide sufficient bins and have an efficient solid waste collection system that includes the beach sector, and bins for collecting recyclable material shall be provided; any person who deposits solid waste scattered on the ground on the coasts and beaches incurs a violation of this Regulation. And the lighting characteristics must take into account the Regulation for the Control and Prevention of Light Pollution, Regulation No. 8786 of the DRNA, and Act 218-2008.

Permits for projects in the Coastal Zone are processed before OGPe or the municipality of the corresponding hierarchy, within the ordinary permit process. The maritime-terrestrial zone demarcation plan is certified by the DRNA and submitted along with the project’s other documents. The dedication of the public access routes is formalised by public deed in favour of the municipality where the project is sited or of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, or by the approval of a Registration Plan and by public deed. The CES Plan is approved by the DRNA with the recommendations of the Soil Conservation Committee of the Department of Agriculture, the DRNA and the EPA. And the special regulations and sectoral plans the Planning Board adopts for natural reserves and special planning areas prevail over any other statutory land-ordering provision.

• Assuming a project bordering the coast need not provide public access, when the requirement is mandatory unless one of the six exemptions applies.
• Drawing the access on the plan without dedicating it to public traffic by public deed in favour of the municipality or the DTOP.
• Leaving the accesses unsignposted with the beach’s name or the name of the sector of special interest.
• Using the one-thousand-two-hundred-metre separation between vehicular accesses on a lot segregated after the Regulation took effect.
• Applying the non-urban districts’ separation, one thousand six hundred metres, in an area qualified for urban districts.
• Believing the pedestrian separation changes between urban and non-urban areas, when in both it is four hundred metres.
• Claiming the small-project exemption for a lot of more than two thousand square metres.
• Building fences, railings or buoys with "No Pase" signs over an existing public access without obtaining a permit for it.
• Excavating the pavement or opening ditches across a public access, or building structures within its easement.
• Occupying with permanent structures the twenty-metre strip dedicated to public use from the maritime-terrestrial zone.
• Erecting permanent structures on the thirty-metre strip adjoining the previous one.
• Submitting a project on land bordering the shore without the maritime-terrestrial zone demarcation plan certified by the DRNA.
• Treating the DRNA-certified demarcation as a permanent title of property, when it only represents the limit at the plan’s date.
• Using a demarcation more than five years old, or not requesting a new one when the coast changed by natural causes or human alteration.
• Proposing sanitary discharges to the beach or to adjoining bodies of water in beach sectors or on lacustrine shores.
• Omitting the CES Plan in a project whose principal property exceeds nine hundred square metres with earth-moving.
• Designing a project bordering the beach without sufficient bins, without a collection system that includes the beach sector and without recyclable-material bins.

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

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov

• OGPe Single Business Portal

  ogpe

  www.permisos.pr.gov