Changing a lot’s qualification: maps, maximum sizes and effective dates

It is Chapter 7.5 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, titled Qualification Maps. The Planning Board may establish, through this Regulation’s qualification districts and the corresponding maps, the use, control and development of land, buildings and structures throughout Puerto Rico. The maps setting the limits of the districts adopted by the Board or by hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipalities are incorporated by reference and made part of the Regulation, and collectively constitute Puerto Rico’s Qualification Maps. They are archived at the Board, and all their annotations, references and other information are considered part of the Regulation as if contained in it. They are available to the general public, also through the Board’s geographic information system. The chapter also governs direct qualification change, the route by which an owner asks for their property’s district to be changed.

The Planning Board or the hierarchy II-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable, is empowered to consider and hear direct qualification change applications under Act No. 75, Act 107-2020 and Act 161-2009. Hierarchy I Autonomous Municipalities without the power to evaluate amendments must elevate the petitions to the Board. When the Board or the municipality exercises this authority it exercises a quasi-legislative function, since the process does not adjudicate a controversy but establishes a regulatory norm. The practical limit is in Table 7.1: applications may be submitted complying with the maximum property size parameters by district requested, and anyone exceeding those areas must file a duly justified dispensa application, complying with the Reglamento de Cobro. Hierarchy III Municipalities may, where the Convenio so provides, handle applications for lots exceeding two thousand square metres through a dispensa application.

• Complying with Table 7.1’s maximum property size parameters by district requested, or filing a duly justified dispensa application complying with the Reglamento de Cobro.Verified against the official source
• Complying with the general requirements in Rule 2.1.9 on filing applications and submitting the application through the SUI.Verified against the official source
• Complying with the signage requirements of Section 2.1.9.12 (Filing Sign) and Section 2.1.10.4 (Signage Requirements) of Volume II.Verified against the official source
• That the proposal be in harmony with the established classifications: qualification districts are established by virtue of the soil classifications in the PUTPR, so direct or indirect qualification changes must be in harmony with them.Verified against the official source
• Complying with Rule 2.1.10 on public hearings; hierarchy II-III Autonomous Municipalities with a Convenio must notify the Planning Board not less than fifteen days before the public hearing.Verified against the official source
• That the petitioning party comply with the Planning Board’s Reglamento de Cobro for publishing the notice of the amended map’s effective date.Verified against the official source

• With the qualification change application the following is filed, through the SUI: a clear and complete description of the sector; its location, outstanding characteristics, and agricultural, historic, scenic, cultural or natural importance; and the reasons supporting the change application and justification of the benefit the community or sector would derive from it.
• For the public hearing in municipalities with a convenio: the public hearing notice, an explanatory memorial on the proposed amendments, the maps or Geodato identifying the parcels proposed for amendment, and a digital copy of the proposal’s file.
• For a qualification change through a previously authorised consulta de ubicación: a copy of the construction and use permit certified and authorised by OGPe or the autonomous municipality, as evidence the project was built and authorised under the provisions set in the consulta.
• The qualification map or graphic representation of the proposed change, printed in colour at 8½ by 11, at a scale in multiples of one thousand and not smaller than 1:1,000, covering a minimum area of sixty metres around the petitioned parcel, identifying the sector’s current qualification and the parcels within that radius.

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   Step 1: Look at your property’s size first

   The regulation’s Table 7.1 sets the maximum property size by the district you request. For R-8, R-I, R-U, R-C, C-L, C-I, C-T and ARD: two thousand square metres. For C-C, RT-I and RT-A: four thousand square metres. For RC-E and a second district whose initials are not legible in the scan: eight thousand square metres. For R-G, A-G, A-B and C-R: twenty-five cuerdas. For A-P: fifty cuerdas. And D-G, D-A and M have no limit. If your property exceeds the maximum area for the district you want, you are not out: applications exceeding those areas may be submitted, but you must file a duly justified dispensa application, complying with the Reglamento de Cobro, stating the motives, grounds and reasons justifying its consideration through a direct qualification change. Those petitions are evaluated by the Board or the autonomous municipality, which issues the final determination.

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   Step 2: Find out who decides your case

   The Planning Board or the hierarchy II-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable, is empowered to consider direct qualification change applications, under Act No. 75, Act 107-2020 and Act 161-2009. Hierarchy I Autonomous Municipalities without the power to evaluate amendments must elevate the petitions to the Board. And if your municipality holds the power delegated by Convenio, it will handle the application, with the duty to then send the Board a copy of the Municipal Legislature’s Ordinance with the approved changes, the amended maps or geodato, and a copy of the hearing examiner’s report. It is also worth knowing what the agency is doing: when it exercises this authority it exercises a quasi-legislative function, since the process does not adjudicate a controversy but establishes a regulatory norm. That explains why the procedure resembles rulemaking more than litigation.

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   Step 3: Prepare what is filed: short but substantive

   Every applicant for a qualification change must submit to the Board or the municipality, through the SUI, three things: a clear and complete description of the sector; its location, outstanding characteristics, and agricultural, historic, scenic, cultural or natural importance; and the reasons supporting the change application and justification of the benefit the community or sector would derive. That third point is the decisive one: the regulation does not ask you to explain your benefit, it asks you to justify the community’s or the sector’s benefit. You must also comply with the general filing requirements of Rule 2.1.9, and with the signage requirements of Section 2.1.9.12 and Section 2.1.10.4 of Volume II.

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   Step 4: The recommendations and their fifteen-day clock

   Recommendations are sought from the municipalities, the Planning Board and the government entities concerned, as applicable, as part of the evaluation process. They must send their recommendations within fifteen days of the date the recommendation request is notified. And if they do not issue them within that term, it is understood they have no recommendations and the process continues. It is a silence that runs in favour of the case moving forward.

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   Step 5: The public hearing

   Rule 2.1.10 of Volume II on public hearings must be complied with. Hierarchy II-III Autonomous Municipalities with a Convenio must notify the Board not less than fifteen days before the public hearing, and file the hearing notice, an explanatory memorial on the proposed amendments, and the maps or geodato identifying the parcels proposed for amendment, plus a digital copy of the file. The notice must carry the petition number, the cadastre number, the physical address, the parcel’s area and the current and proposed qualification.

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   Step 6: The hearing-free route: a completed consulta de ubicación

   There is a little-known shortcut. Where a use was previously authorised by a consulta de ubicación for which a public hearing was held, notice was given of the intent to change the qualification district, and the construction and use permits were issued under the Junta Adjudicativa’s resolution, the interested party may start the map-change procedure before the Board. They must submit a copy of the construction and use permit certified and authorised by OGPe or the autonomous municipality, as evidence it was built and authorised under the consulta. Once it is verified the consulta was completed, the qualification change on the map proceeds without the need for new hearings. An important limit: in these cases the Junta Adjudicativa or the municipality may not change the parcel’s classification, only its qualification.

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   Step 7: Effective date: fifteen days from publication

   Authorised amendments to the qualification maps or to the Geodato are made public by publishing a notice in a general-circulation newspaper in Puerto Rico, and take effect fifteen days after publication. The petitioning party must comply with the Board’s Reglamento de Cobro for publishing that effectiveness notice. On the municipal route there are two further clocks: the revision is effective twenty working days after notification to the Board as shown by the acknowledgement of receipt, and during that period the Board may determine the revision is against the Ordination Plan’s policies or has impact beyond the municipal limits, and refuse it by Resolution notified to the municipality. That twenty-day term may be extended for just cause by a final additional fifteen working days, by resolution stating the reasons.

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   Step 8: If your lot ended up split between two qualifications

   Rule 7.5.2 resolves this with three rules. Where it is shown the lot’s area has always been the same, the less restrictive qualification is used to determine the use, in urban and common rustic soil classifications. In soils whose classification was adopted through the designation of a special planning area, each part of the lot gets the requirements corresponding to the district it sits in, whether or not the soils are urban. And where the different qualification is due to a grouping of lots sitting in urban and rustic soils, each part likewise gets its own district’s requirements. In addition, if the physical elements existing on the ground differ from those set on the official maps, or in any other circumstance not covered, the Board or the municipality must be consulted to clarify the discrepancies.

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   Step 9: Where to see the maps

   All of Puerto Rico’s Qualification Maps are available to the general public, also through the Planning Board’s geographic information system. The maps are archived at the Board and all their annotations, references and other information are considered part of the Regulation as if contained in it, and all amendments to the official maps are incorporated into Puerto Rico’s Qualification Maps at the Board. The maps may also include the waters and the ocean or maritime soil, reefs, islets, cays and adjacent islands within a distance of three nautical leagues — 10.35 land miles — seaward, which constitutes the maritime delimitation of Puerto Rico’s coastal zone.

The application is filed through the SUI with the Planning Board or the hierarchy II-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable. Hierarchy I Autonomous Municipalities without the power to evaluate amendments must elevate the petitions to the Board. The maps are archived at the Board and available to the public through its geographic information system. After the Municipal Legislature’s approval, the municipality files with the Board the notification letter, a copy of the press notice, the Municipal Ordinance with the approved amendments, the digital format with the authorised changes, and the signed qualification map. Publication of the effectiveness notice is paid for by the municipality on the municipal route, and by the petitioning party under the Board’s Reglamento de Cobro in a direct qualification change.

• Seeking a qualification change without measuring the property against Table 7.1’s maximum sizes.
• Exceeding the district’s maximum area without filing the duly justified dispensa application.
• Justifying your own benefit instead of the benefit the community or sector would derive.
• Filing in a hierarchy I municipality without delegated power, when those petitions must be elevated to the Board.
• Forgetting the signage requirements of Sections 2.1.9.12 and 2.1.10.4 of Volume II.
• Treating the change as effective the day it is approved: it takes effect fifteen days after the notice is published.
• Assuming a qualification change can alter the parcel’s classification on the consulta de ubicación route.
• Proposing a change that is not in harmony with the PUTPR’s soil classifications.

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