Public land transactions before the Planning Board

It is Chapter 7.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, titled Filing Procedures and Requirements. It is adopted under Section 3.2 of Act 38-2017, Article 11 of Act No. 75 of 1975 and Act 161-2009, and its purpose is to establish the rules governing certain proceedings before the Planning Board. It applies to all proceedings heard at the Board, except the adjudicative proceedings on complaints and administrative fines, which are in Volume XI. Four kinds of filing go before the Board: public transactions that are not exempt, the Master Plan, the designations of special zones and areas, and qualification changes. This guide covers in detail the public land transaction procedure and the common procedural rules — adjudication, reconsideration, term, revocation, orders and intervention — the chapter establishes.

Every public land transaction and its amendments, extensions and reopenings may be promoted by the property’s owner, option holder or lessee, personally or through an authorised representative, or by the Agency Head or their authorised representative. Every submission or document must be filed at the Oficina de Secretaría by the person expressly authorised: failing that, it is deemed not filed and does not form part of the file. Revocation of a transaction, and provisional orders, orders to do or not to do and cease-and-desist orders, may be promoted by the Board on its own initiative or at the request of a person with legitimate interest. There is also a long list of agency-by-agency exempt transactions — ACT and DTOP, DTOP and the Land Authority, AAA, DRNA, AEE, Housing, PRIDCO, Ports, Agriculture, the UPR and the Cantera Peninsula Integral Development Company, among others — and general exemptions for leases for government use, for transfers to municipalities notified thirty days in advance, and for transactions approved by the Immovable Property Evaluation and Disposition Committee.

• That the transaction be filed at the Planning Board’s Oficina de Secretaría using the corresponding forms or the Agency’s official mechanisms, by the person expressly authorised to do so.Verified against the official source
• Reliable evidence that the applicant is owner, option holder or duly authorised lessee: acquisition deed, purchase option contract or registry certification identifying the land’s owner; and in inheritance cases, a declaratoria de herederos.Verified against the official source
• Where there is more than one owner: evidence that all authorise the proposed action, unless all delegate to a single person by sworn declaration or other legal document.Verified against the official source
• An Explanatory Memorial duly signed in original discussing the proposed transaction’s nature, the context in which it is proposed, the applicable regulations, public policy, land use plans or ordination plan, the parcel’s flood susceptibility, the proposed infrastructure and any other aspect considered necessary.Verified against the official source
• Payment of the filing fees corresponding to the type of project or application; land transactions filed by government bodies are exempt from that payment.Verified against the official source
• For transactions on agricultural land under government title: the Agriculture Department’s recommendation. And in acquisition and sale cases: evidence that the transaction was offered to the land’s original owner.Verified against the official source
• That every planning document prepared by government entities, municipalities, private entities or persons be duly certified by a Licensed Professional Planner authorised to practise in Puerto Rico, with their public seal stamped and signed inside on each original and copy.Verified against the official source

• Evidence of title — acquisition deed, purchase option contract or registry certification — and, for inheritances, the declaratoria de herederos. Every document filed in an adjudicative action of the Board forms part of the file and will not be returned; a copy may be obtained for legitimate purposes on paying the corresponding fees.
• The Explanatory Memorial signed in original, with the transaction’s nature and context, the applicable regulations and public policy, the parcel’s flood susceptibility and the proposed infrastructure.
• For an amendment to an approved transaction: an application detailing the amendment’s nature and the reason for it, with all pertinent and necessary documentation such as plans and studies, filed at the Oficina de Secretaría or through the digital file where available, and notified with a copy to any recognised intervener or party.
• For an extension: the petition filed before the expiry date, stating the grounds it rests on and with evidence of the progress made in preparing the documents and plans the case requires.

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   Step 1: What goes before the Board and what does not

   The chapter applies to all proceedings heard at the Planning Board, except the adjudicative proceedings on complaints and administrative fines, regulated in Volume XI. Four kinds of filing go before the Board: public transactions not exempt by law, by Board resolution or by the regulation itself; the Master Plan; the designations of Tourist Interest Zones, Historic Zones, School Zones, Port Zones, Risk Zones, Special Planning Areas, Special Planning Zones, Nature Reserves and Agricultural Reserves; and qualification changes. And there is a closing rule: Board determinations not expressly named in the Regulation are governed by whichever of its provisions is of greatest application.

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   Step 2: Who may promote one

   Every public land transaction and its amendments, extensions and reopenings may be promoted by the property’s owner, option holder or lessee, personally or through an authorised representative, or by the Agency Head or their authorised representative. There is a formal rule worth taking seriously: every submission or document relating to an adjudicative matter before the Board must be filed at the Oficina de Secretaría by the person expressly authorised to do so, and failing that it is deemed not filed and does not form part of the file. A writing filed by someone unauthorised simply does not exist for the case.

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   Step 3: What is filed and when the date counts

   The transaction is filed at the Board’s Oficina de Secretaría using the corresponding forms or the Agency’s official mechanisms, and the document’s filing date is, to all legal effects, the date of its receipt at that office. With the application go: reliable evidence that the applicant is owner, option holder or duly authorised lessee, such as an acquisition deed, purchase option contract or registry certification; in inheritance cases, a declaratoria de herederos; where there is more than one owner, evidence that all authorise the action, unless all delegate to a single person by sworn declaration or other legal document; and an Explanatory Memorial duly signed in original. Every application pays the filing fees corresponding to the type of project, but transactions filed by government bodies are exempt from that payment.

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   Step 4: The explanatory memorial is the case

   The regulation describes what it must discuss: the proposed transaction’s nature, the context in which it is proposed, the applicable regulations, public policy, land use plans or ordination plan, the parcel’s flood susceptibility, the proposed infrastructure and any other aspect considered necessary. That list is not decorative: it is the list of what the Board will evaluate, together with Act No. 75, Act 107-2020 and Act 550-2004, the Comprehensive Sustainable Strategic Development Plan, the Puerto Rico Land Use Plan, the Qualification Maps, the Special Flood Risk Areas, the Territorial Ordination and Regional Plans adopted by the Board and approved by the Governor, the Planning Regulations, the Four-Year Investment Programme, and factors such as topographic features, subsoil condition, population density, degree of environmental contamination, the distance between the land and built-up areas, and the land’s agricultural, environmental or tourism importance.

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   Step 5: The six-month clock and how it stops

   Where the Board deems it necessary to analyse a transaction, it will require the proponent to submit the pertinent additional or clarifying information. It grants a term to do so and warns that, if it is not submitted within that term, the Board may take whatever action corresponds, including denying or archiving the transaction for lack of interest. And here is the rule that decides how long a case takes: the six-month period established by law for the Board to resolve the transaction is understood to be interrupted while the required information is not provided. That is, the clock runs against the agency, but stops while the ball is in your court.

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   Step 6: How it is decided and how it is notified

   The Board, in all adjudicative cases, takes its determination considering the totality of the file, by resolution including the findings of fact and conclusions of law grounding the agreement reached. It also identifies the persons considered parties in the proceeding, for the purposes of seeking reconsideration and review. The Oficina de Secretaría notifies by post the already recognised parties, at the addresses in the file. And the resolution warns the affected party of their right to seek reconsideration or review before the Court of Appeals, stating the terms available under Act 38-2017. There is also a summary route: the Board, on its own initiative or at an interested person’s instance, may issue a final or partial Summary Resolution or Order, without a public hearing, where the file shows there is no real controversy over a material and essential fact and, as a matter of law, the action sought does not lie.

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   Step 7: The deadlines to reconsider and review

   The adversely affected party may file a Motion for Reconsideration within twenty days of the notice being filed in the record. The Board must consider it within fifteen days of its filing. If it rejects it outright or does not act within those fifteen days, the thirty-day term to seek judicial review begins to run anew. If it takes a determination, the thirty days run from the date a copy of the notice of the resolution finally deciding the reconsideration is filed in the record, a resolution that must be issued and filed within ninety days of the request. If the Board timely accepts the request but does not act within those ninety days, it loses jurisdiction, and the judicial review term runs from that expiry, unless the Board, for just cause and within those ninety days, extends it by no more than thirty additional days. And if reconsideration is not chosen, the affected party has thirty days from the filing in the record to seek judicial review before the Court of Appeals; if the filing date differs from the date of deposit in the post, the term is calculated from the postal deposit.

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   Step 8: Four years of validity and a single extension

   The Board’s approval of a public land transaction has a validity of four years. That period may be longer or shorter where the Board deems it convenient, in the public interest. A transaction is considered valid while the terms granted by the Board are in force. And where a judicial review has been filed at the Court of Appeals, the time the case is under the Court’s consideration, until it renders judgment and the mandate is returned to the agency, is not counted as part of the validity period. On extensions, the rule is short and strict: the Board may grant a single extension to a transaction’s validity, provided the petition is filed before the expiry date, states the grounds it rests on, and submits evidence of the progress made in preparing the documents and plans the case requires.

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   Step 9: If it expired: lapse, not reopening

   The regulation expressly closes that door. No reopening will be considered for public land transactions that have lost their validity. Nor may a reopening request be filed in cases archived for failure to submit requested information, unless it comes with the complete information the Board asked the proponent for to continue the process. And every public land transaction that has lost its validity lapses, so, for the proposed transaction to be considered, it must be filed as a new transaction complying with the corresponding procedures. Translated: if it expired, there is no shortcut; you start again.

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    Step 10: Revocation: when and by what process

    The Board sitting in plenary may revoke the authorisation of a land transaction where it was induced into error, by fraud, by false representation, where known information was omitted that would have changed the decision, for lack of jurisdiction, or where a pressing public interest merits protection. The process is written down: the Board establishes by resolution the pertinent facts and applicable law, and notifies the concession holder by certified mail with return receipt, ordering them to show cause within fifteen days why the approval should not be revoked; that term may be extended. If the party does not respond, the Board may revoke. If they respond and justify that revocation does not lie, the Board will so recognise. And if it considers the process should continue, it sets an administrative hearing. At the request of a person with legitimate interest the path is parallel: the promoter files a writing showing their legitimate interest and reasons, notified by personal delivery or certified mail with return receipt to the concession holder and the recognised parties, and the concession holder has fifteen days to respond.

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    Step 11: Cease-and-desist orders, and intervention

    Provisional orders, orders to do or not to do, and cease-and-desist orders may issue on the Board’s initiative or at the request of a person with legitimate interest. On the Board’s initiative, it establishes by resolution the facts and law justifying the order, notifies it by personal delivery or certified mail with return receipt, and the person it is aimed at may request an administrative hearing within ten days of notification, under Article 11, paragraph 9 of Act No. 75. At a legitimate-interest person’s request, whoever seeks the order files a writing showing their interest and reasons, and the person against whom it is sought has ten days to respond. If the Board determines there are no reasons to continue, it denies the request by resolution; if it determines there are well-founded grounds, it may issue a provisional order and set an administrative hearing to decide whether the order will continue permanently in force, for a set period, or be left without effect. And any person with a legitimate interest may file a duly grounded written request to intervene in the proceeding.

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    Step 12: The Licensed Professional Planner’s seal

    The chapter devotes a whole rule to this. Since a recognised and duly authorised professional exists, it is necessary to require that every planning document prepared by the government entities concerned, municipalities, private entities or persons be duly certified by a Licensed Professional Planner authorised to practise in Puerto Rico. The PPL must obtain a public seal bearing their licence number, and that seal is stamped and signed inside on each original document and copy prepared, supervised or revised by them. The list of documents it covers is long: Territorial Ordination, Area, Extension, Recovery, Transportation, Conservation, Urbanisation, Development, Mitigation, Vulnerability, Master, Strategic, Community, Urban and Institutional plans, among others; studies, reports, technical specifications, maps, drawings, diagrams, concepts and plans presented to a client or public entity. And the PPL is responsible for their work and guarantees the planning process followed is compatible with the profession’s generally accepted principles.

At the Planning Board’s Oficina de Secretaría, using the corresponding forms or the Agency’s official mechanisms. The filing date is, to all legal effects, the date of its receipt at that office. Amendments are filed at the Oficina de Secretaría or through the digital file, where available. The Oficina de Secretaría notifies resolutions by post to the recognised parties. Revocation requests and provisional order requests are notified by personal delivery or by certified mail with return receipt. And judicial review is filed before the Court of Appeals.

• Filing through someone other than the expressly authorised person: the writing is deemed not filed.
• Counting the filing date from when it was sent rather than from receipt at the Oficina de Secretaría.
• Seeking the extension after the expiry date, when it must be filed before.
• Counting on more than one extension: the regulation grants a single one.
• Seeking reopening of a transaction that has already lost its validity: none are considered.
• Delaying the additional information the Board requires and believing the six-month clock keeps running in your favour.
• Filing a reopening request in an archived case without the complete information the Board asked for.
• Forgetting the declaratoria de herederos where title comes from an inheritance.

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