R-G Rural General district: what can be done on rural land

It is Rule 6.1.17 of Chapter 6.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, the Qualified Areas chapter, defining the R-G, Rural General qualification district. It has the district’s purpose, the table of permitted uses in four columns — agro-industry, residential, commercial and others — a section of uses by exception with nine cases, and the design-parameter table. It is the district governing much of the Island’s ordinary rustic land, and the one most people ask about when they want to know what can be done on a farm.

The district consists mostly of land of Soil Productive Capacity Class VII and in some cases Classes V and VI, as classified by the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The regulation warns that the main limit on uses in this district will be the availability of infrastructure and the land’s topographic and geological conditions. The permitted institutional uses have a limit of their own: the lot will not exceed one cuerda. And several uses come only by exception, some with a public hearing before authorisation.

• A minimum lot of twenty-five cuerdas, and a separation of no less than six metres from the right of way of every existing or proposed road for every building or structure.Verified against the official source
• Maximum occupation area: on lots over five cuerdas it is determined by the activity’s nature; on lots over one to five cuerdas it does not exceed twenty per cent; on lots under one cuerda it does not exceed fifty per cent.Verified against the official source
• Gross floor area: on lots over five cuerdas it is determined by the activity; on lots over one to five cuerdas it does not exceed forty per cent of the lot area; on lots under one cuerda it does not exceed one hundred per cent.Verified against the official source
• Side and rear separations of three metres or one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater.Verified against the official source
• If the industrial project relies on the use table: not exceeding fifteen thousand square feet of gross floor area, and the activity not significantly producing smoke, dust, gases, vibrations or fire or explosion risk.Verified against the official source
• For a cemetery by exception: a minimum parcel or farm of two cuerdas, and the land comprising none of the seven kinds of area the regulation excludes, with the Department of Health’s and the Tourism Company’s endorsement if it sits in or near tourist sectors.Verified against the official source
• For a guest house by exception: Tourism Company certification, density computed at 0.4 basic dwelling units per room, and every front, side or rear yard of no less than fifteen metres.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: What land is R-G

   The district consists mostly of land of Soil Productive Capacity Class VII and in some cases Classes V and VI, which have some limits for agricultural cultivation, as classified by the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Those limits may be due to fertility, soil depth, topography, pH condition, rainfall, flood susceptibility and location relative to infrastructure, structures and activities with heavy concentrations of people. The regulation adds a sentence worth keeping: with adequate conservation, cultivation and management practices, this land is agriculturally productive. And it warns that a diversity of uses exists or may exist in this district whose main limit will be the availability of infrastructure and the topographic and geological conditions.

2. 2

   Step 2: Housing and lodging

   The table’s residential column allows housing for one or two families, second storeys, micro casas or tiny houses, specialised lodging, short-term supplementary lodging, and bed and breakfast. Separately, in the "others" column appear the agro-hospedería and the eco-hospedería, which are categories of their own in the rural districts. The density is set by the parameter table in an unusual way: one- or two-family dwellings will be considered, as established in the consulta de ubicación.

3. 3

   Step 3: Commerce and the two ten-thousand-foot thresholds

   The commercial column has two entries read together. The first allows the retail of basic-necessity products not exceeding ten thousand square feet of gross floor area. The second allows businesses that do exceed ten thousand square feet, but only if devoted to selling animals and agricultural products. Beyond that, the column includes the cafetín, education, health and security services, the care centre, craft uses and agricultural uses such as sowing agricultural products by traditional methods. And in the "others" column: a recyclable-materials collection centre, warehouses, startups, the siting of cultivation, manufacture, fabrication, product distribution and laboratory centres for medicinal cannabis, institutional uses whose lot will not exceed one cuerda, dotacionales, renewable energy projects, ecotourism and agrotourism activities, the soundproofed animal hospital, and other uses by consulta de ubicación.

4. 4

   Step 4: The parameters: the twenty-five-cuerda farm

   The lot’s minimum area is twenty-five cuerdas. The maximum occupation area goes by size: on lots over five cuerdas it will be determined by the nature of the specific activity to be carried out on each; on lots over one to five cuerdas it will not exceed twenty per cent; and on lots under one cuerda it will not exceed fifty per cent. The gross floor area follows the same logic: by the activity on lots over five cuerdas, forty per cent of the lot area on lots of one to five cuerdas, and one hundred per cent on lots under one cuerda. On separations, every building or structure will keep a separation of no less than six metres from the right of way of every existing or proposed road, and separations from side and rear boundary lines will be three metres or one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater.

5. 5

   Step 5: The cemetery: two cuerdas and seven excluded kinds of land

   The cemetery comes in by exception and on very concrete conditions. The parcel’s or farm’s minimum area will be two cuerdas. And the land approved may not comprise areas that constitute or form part of high-productivity agricultural or livestock units, as the Department of Agriculture determines; areas essential for the access, enjoyment or preservation of recreational resources, groves, forests, landscapes and geological formations of exceptional beauty; areas with mineral deposits, mines and quarries of appreciable real or potential economic value; areas important to Puerto Rico’s historic or cultural heritage; areas of public interest for their significant value in preserving wild flora or fauna of economic, ecological or scientific importance; and areas susceptible to floods, landslides, slips or storm surges. Moreover, the Department of Health’s and the Tourism Company’s endorsement will be required where the proposed land sits in or near tourist sectors.

6. 6

   Step 6: Schools, churches, hospitals and slaughterhouses

   Teaching institutions of pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher level come in by exception, with the minimum land area computed at eight square metres per student, classroom size at twenty square feet per student, a minimum separation of one thousand feet — three hundred and five metres — from any lot with an existing or authorised petrol station, yards twice those required in the district, and a public hearing before authorisation. Religious institutions come in on lots of up to two cuerdas, with a minimum separation of fifty linear metres from any petrol station, yards twice as large, possible sound insulation where the yards cannot be met, and no exterior loudspeakers or horns. Also by exception come the hospital, nursing home and sanatorium — those for contagious diseases or treating the mentally ill no less than fifty metres from every property line — the veterinary hospital in soundproofed structures, and slaughterhouses. And one exception is worth reading carefully because it names another district: commerce consonant with a C-L District, up to ten thousand square feet for the retail of ordinary household consumption or use articles including ironmongers, which the text sites "en Distritos A-G" inside a rule governing R-G.

7. 7

   Step 7: Mobile homes: the setbacks from water

   Holiday mobile-home projects are allowed by exception and bring their own miniature regulation. The land may not comprise areas susceptible to floods, landslides, slips or storm surges, and must have the necessary infrastructure. Where the land abuts bodies of water, a minimum setback is kept to the nearest point of the mobile-home and vehicle parking area: twenty-five metres from oceans and seas, measured from the maritime-terrestrial zone limit as the DRNA delimits it; ten metres from rivers, canals and streams, from the channel’s outer edge; and twenty-five metres from lakes and lagoons, measured from the acquisition limit of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority and the Electric Power Authority. The space in those setbacks may be used for temporarily installing camping shelters, play areas and other recreational facilities, and building permanent structures is not allowed except showers and changing rooms. Moreover, a three-metre setback from every boundary with another lot is required, planted with trees and landscaped.

8. 8

   Step 8: Mobile homes: density, groups and what may not be done

   Up to twenty mobile homes per cuerda of the site are allowed, with at least one parking space per home. The land used to park the homes and cars, plus manoeuvring space and accesses, must not exceed thirty per cent of the site. The homes keep a minimum separation of five metres wide and six metres deep. Access to the farm has a running width of no less than six metres, surfaced or asphalted, and internal circulation roads have a minimum width of ten metres; internal works may be simple, with no asphalt or concrete, surfacing only. Earth movement will be minimal. Now the prohibitions: segregating or subdividing mobile-home spaces or lots is not allowed; mobile homes may not be used as permanent dwellings, and for that the units must rest on temporary or removable bases; and no construction of any material is allowed as an extension to the mobile home, though an aluminium or canvas awning held on one side is. Every project of twenty-five homes or more must provide a children’s play area, and beyond twenty-five homes the units must be distributed in groups of twelve or fewer, separated by buffer strips twelve metres wide. And every project within or adjacent to an area of environmental, natural and cultural importance must obtain the DRNA’s endorsement.

9. 9

   Step 9: The rural guest house and its fifteen-metre yards

   Guest houses come in by exception and with requirements of their own for the rural setting. Tourism Company certification is required. Density is computed from the density permitted in the district, assuming a hotel room equals four tenths of a basic dwelling unit; if residential units are included, they will not exceed one residential unit per four rooms where the project sits outside the urban expansion area. Every front, side or rear yard will be no less than fifteen metres wide. Spaces for accessory uses and accessory buildings may sit in the part of the lot where the main building is allowed, and any required yard may be used for courts, pools, walks or parking where no structures rising more than a metre above the ground are built, except the towers or posts for the courts, the pools and the lighting. The structures may not be given commercial characteristics, and the authorisation will carry the conditions OGPe’s Adjudicative Board or the Municipality deems necessary to protect the neighbourhood’s health and general wellbeing.

A property’s qualification is read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps, and the permits applying these parameters are processed before OGPe, the Autonomous Municipalities with Hierarchy I to III or an Authorised Professional. The district’s density and several of its uses — those the table refers to "other uses by consulta de ubicación" — are determined in the consulta de ubicación before the Adjudicative Board. Teaching institutions and civic clubs carry a public hearing before authorisation, the cemetery and guest houses need endorsements from the Department of Health or the Tourism Company as the case may be, and mobile-home projects near areas of environmental importance need the DRNA’s endorsement.

• Applying a single occupation percentage without checking which size band the lot falls in.
• Opening a basic-necessity retail business over ten thousand square feet of gross floor area.
• Assuming any business may pass ten thousand feet: only those devoted to selling animals and agricultural products.
• Setting up an industrial project over fifteen thousand square feet of gross floor area under the use table.
• Putting an institutional use on a lot larger than one cuerda, when the table limits it to one.
• Building within six metres of the right of way of an existing or proposed road.
• Proposing a cemetery on land susceptible to floods, landslides, slips or storm surges, or on high-productivity agricultural units.
• Proposing a cemetery in a tourist sector without the Department of Health’s and the Tourism Company’s endorsement.
• Planning a school within one thousand feet — three hundred and five metres — of a petrol station, or a church within fifty metres.
• Placing mobile-home parking within twenty-five metres of the sea, ten of a river or twenty-five of a lake.
• Putting more than twenty mobile homes per cuerda, or devoting more than thirty per cent of the site to parking them.
• Using the mobile homes as permanent dwellings, or resting them on bases that are not temporary or removable.
• Segregating or subdividing the mobile-home spaces.
• Building an extension to the mobile home instead of the one-sided aluminium or canvas awning.
• Going beyond twenty-five mobile homes without distributing them in groups of twelve or fewer with twelve-metre buffer strips.
• Setting up a guest house without the Tourism Company’s certification, or with yards under fifteen metres.

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