R-C district: the business on the ground floor and the dwelling above

It is Rule 6.1.5 of Chapter 6.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, which defines the R-C qualification district, residential-commercial. It has six sections: the purpose, the use table, the list of prohibited uses, the uses by exception, the design-parameter table in two columns, and a section of its own on gross floor area for apartment-house projects with a commercial ground level. It is the district of the town centres and the transit roads where commerce and housing share the same building.

The parameters apply to every new construction on a lot qualified R-C. The parameter table distinguishes two contexts: high-density urban areas and traditional urban centres, and in the latter the lot’s minimum area and width are the existing ones, with no new minimum required. Teaching institutions are allowed on lots whose qualification to the rear is not R-I. And by exception, uses of the C-I district not contemplated in the R-C table may be allowed, provided they meet the district’s purposes.

• Keeping residential as the district’s principal use; commercial or service uses sit in part or all of the ground floor’s area.Verified against the official source
• In high-density urban areas: a lot of no less than 400 square metres and 20 metres wide, occupation of 70% on interior lots, 80% corner, 90% two or three corners and 100% whole block, and gross floor area of 250%.Verified against the official source
• In traditional urban centres: the lot’s existing area and width, occupation of 75% interior, 85% corner, 95% two or three corners and 100% whole block, gross floor area of 450% interior and 510% corner, and one basic dwelling unit per 80 square metres of lot.Verified against the official source
• That the building’s façade harmonise with the sector’s residential properties in high-density urban areas, and that the commercial area’s electrical distribution system be separate from the residential area’s.Verified against the official source
• In traditional urban centres: that every new building be special and unique and conform to the area’s general architecture, without building generic buildings or ones symbolically or visually representing a franchise.Verified against the official source
• If cars or motorcycles are hired out: that the vehicles not be displayed in the front yard. If a bakery or patisserie with electric or fluid-gas ovens is operated: that its products be sold retail inside the premises.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Why the district was created

   R-C is established to promote land or structure use combining commercial and residential uses, fostering local activity nuclei, without the commerce harming the residential character that must prevail in the zone, and promoting densification and reduced dependence on the private car. Mixed uses complementing the traditional urban centre’s activity and the sector’s redevelopment are promoted. The district provides flexibility in designing pedestrian-oriented developments and in siting employment and commerce near high-density housing. It includes commercial, residential and service uses on lots along transit roads, where replacing existing structures, densifying and grouping lots will be encouraged. And operating rules ensuring the neighbourhood’s tranquillity are promoted, avoiding excessive noise, air pollution, offensive odours or excessive lighting towards the residential areas.

2. 2

   Step 2: The basic rule: residential above, commerce on the ground floor

   Section 6.1.5.2 opens with the sentence that defines the whole district: the principal use in this district is residential; nevertheless, part or all of the ground floor’s area may be given to commercial or service uses. That is R-C’s logic and it explains why its list of prohibited uses is so concrete: anything breaking the coexistence with the dwelling above is left out.

3. 3

   Step 3: The uses that are allowed

   In residential: single family, dwelling at second-storey level, multifamiliares, semi-detached or duplex houses and micro casas. In commercial: retail, florist, art gallery, jeweller, bookshop and pawn shop. In services, the longest list: services as defined in the regulation, low-density professional offices, pharmacies, restaurants, guest houses, specialised lodging, care centres, financial institutions, laboratories, shoe, jewellery or watch repair, tailoring or sewing workshop, laundry, lottery, racing or travel agency, barbershop or beauty salon, general medical dispensary, photography studio, gym, equipment hire and leasing, funeral home, animal hospital that is soundproofed and keeps no animals outside the building, and short-term supplementary lodging. In others: startups that generate no noise, dust or objectionable odours and operate only in daytime; religious institutions; non-profit philanthropic institution; teaching institutions on lots whose qualification to the rear is not R-I; professional colleges; car or motorcycle hire, on condition that the vehicles may not be displayed in the front yard; bakery or patisserie using electric or fluid-gas ovens, conditioned on its products being sold retail inside the premises; and dance salon, studio or academy.

4. 4

   Step 4: The nine prohibited uses

   Section 6.1.5.3 lists the uses prohibited in the district, to keep the commercial character limited: tyre and vehicle-parts fitting shops; ironmongers selling timber, sand, stone, cement, lime, steel bar or other heavy materials; mechanics’ workshops; panel-beating and paint shops; repair workshops open to the exterior; screen, door and window workshops; bakery and patisserie using electric or fluid-gas ovens whose products are sold wholesale; cafetín, bar, sport bar, live music, karaoke and DJs; and businesses mainly selling alcoholic drinks or devoted to entertainment. Note the contrast with the use table: the bakery with ovens comes in if it sells retail inside the premises and is prohibited if it sells wholesale.

5. 5

   Step 5: Uses by exception, including the C-I ones

   By exception, uses of the C-I district not contemplated in R-C will be allowed, provided they meet the district’s purposes, and public hearings may be held before authorisation. Also coming in by exception: the non-profit civic club on lots of at most one cuerda, with yards twice the district’s size and a public hearing; the hospital, general medical hospital, nursing home, sanatorium and institution for treating people with mental disability — buildings mainly for a hospital or sanatorium for contagious diseases or treating the mentally ill will be sited no less than fifty metres from every property line of the lot; the rental of storage space to individuals, with the building no taller than nine metres and with no storage of materials that could be explosive or toxic; and renewable energy projects under Chapter 9.2.

6. 6

   Step 6: The parameters: two columns, two worlds

   R-C’s table separates high-density urban areas from traditional urban centres. In high density the lot’s minimum area is four hundred square metres and the minimum width twenty metres; in the traditional urban centre they are the existing area and width, with no new minimum. The maximum occupation area goes by lot type: seventy per cent interior, eighty corner, ninety two or three corners and one hundred per cent whole block in high density; and seventy-five, eighty-five, ninety-five and one hundred in the traditional urban centre. The gross floor area is two hundred and fifty per cent in high density, and four hundred and fifty per cent on interior lots and five hundred and ten on corner lots in the traditional urban centre. And the density: one basic dwelling unit per one hundred and fifty square metres of lot in high density, with the option of converting the number of units under Section 6.1.1.5’s table; and one unit per eighty square metres in the traditional urban centre.

7. 7

   Step 7: The yards, and the residential-block rule

   In high density, the front yard is three metres deep or one fifth of the building’s height, with an important caveat: on lots on the same block facing the same side of a road as lots in a residential district, the front yard’s depth will be no less than that required for the residential district or less than three metres. The rear yard is four metres or one fifth of the height, and there are two side yards of four metres each or one fifth of the height. In the traditional urban centre the front yard drops to one metre or one fifth of the height, and buildings in contexts where the neighbours have no front yard are exempt; the rear one is three metres, with the rule for corner lots on a wholly commercial block allowing it to sit in the lot’s inner quarter provided no yard is less than three by five metres; and the side yards are two metres when the parcel abuts another district, and are waived — allowing party-wall development — when it abuts another parcel of the same district. In both columns, any rear yard or part of it abutting a road will be treated as a front yard.

8. 8

   Step 8: The façade, and the franchise ban

   The parameter table closes with the type of design in buildings and structures, and here the two columns say very different things. In high-density urban areas, buildings and structures will keep a façade that harmonises with the sector’s residential properties; typical façades may be adopted as a guide; and the electrical distribution system for the building’s commercial area will be separate from the residential area’s system, meeting the design standards for the loads the business requires. In traditional urban centres, every new building will be special and unique and must conform to the area’s general architecture; and building generic buildings or ones symbolically or visually representing a franchise is not allowed.

9. 9

   Step 9: Gross floor area with a commercial ground level

   Section 6.1.5.6 sets that the gross floor area will not exceed two hundred and fifty per cent of the lot area, but in apartment-house projects with a commercial ground level it may rise with the permitted density: at one hundred square metres of lot per basic dwelling unit, two hundred and eighty per cent; at seventy, four hundred; at sixty, four hundred and seventy; at fifty-five, five hundred and ten; and at fifty, five hundred and sixty per cent of the lot’s total area.

A property’s R-C qualification is read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps, and the construction permit and the Permiso Único applying these parameters are processed before OGPe, the Autonomous Municipalities with Hierarchy I to III or an Authorised Professional. Uses by exception, including the C-I district’s ones sought to be brought into R-C, are granted in the corresponding process and may carry a public hearing before authorisation.

• Opening a mechanics’ workshop, a panel-beating and paint shop, or a repair workshop open to the exterior on an R-C lot.
• Putting in an ironmonger selling timber, sand, stone, cement, lime or steel bar.
• Opening a cafetín, a bar, a sport bar or a business with live music, karaoke or DJs.
• Running a bakery with electric or gas ovens selling wholesale instead of retail inside the premises.
• Displaying in the front yard the vehicles of a car or motorcycle hire business.
• Treating commerce as the principal use: the district’s principal use is residential.
• Putting the commerce on storeys above the first, when the rule sites it in the ground floor’s area.
• Applying the high-density column to a traditional-urban-centre lot, or the other way round.
• Leaving the front yard at three metres when the lot faces the same side of the road as lots in a residential district requiring more.
• Building in a traditional urban centre a generic building or one symbolically or visually representing a franchise.
• Not separating the commercial area’s electrical distribution system from the residential area’s.
• Renting storage space to individuals in a building taller than nine metres, or storing explosive or toxic materials.
• Assuming a C-I district use comes in automatically: it comes in by exception and may carry a public hearing.

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