Your business sign: when you do not need a permit

It is Chapter 8.7 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, which governs signs and advertisements in Puerto Rico. The regulation distinguishes two things people confuse: a sign identifies the establishment where it stands; an advertisement promotes something that is not there. The difference decides whether you need a permit, how big it may be and whether you must renew every year. This guide covers the general rules and the permit rules; the district-specific sizes live in rules we did not read, and we say which.

It applies to every sign or advertisement installed to be seen from a public way, with express exceptions: flags and emblems of nations or governments, commemorative plaques at recognised historic sites, street and traffic-control signage of DTOP or the municipalities, signs on vending machines advertising only the product they dispense, scoreboards in courts and athletic parks facing the stands, point-of-sale material — prices, promotions, logos, opening-hours or accepted-card stickers — official government notices, political, religious, recreational or civic-expression propaganda installed where the law permits, loose leaflets not fixed to a structure, and the signs notifying the public about an application filed with OGPe or a public hearing.

• Filing, for the first time, the application to be included in the Sign and Advertisement Register, even where the sign requires no permit.Verified against the official source
• That a sponsoring company’s advertisement built into the sign not exceed twenty-five per cent (25%) of the sign’s size.Verified against the official source
• To renew a permit: an engineer’s or architect’s certification that the sign is in good condition and retains its structural safety.Verified against the official source
• Certification of the project by a licensed engineer or architect where the sign or advertisement exceeds a hundred (100) square feet.Verified against the official source
• A manufacturer’s certification where the sign or advertisement is a hundred (100) square feet or less and does not entail building a structure.Verified against the official source
• Complying with DRNA’s Light Pollution Control and Prevention Regulation in force.Verified against the official source

• Reference to the Single Permit issued for the property where the sign or advertisement is located, as applicable.
• A scale plan in digital format showing the sign’s location on the property, with the dimensions of the ground or wall and including the abutting ways.
• Certification by a licensed engineer or architect (over 100 square feet) or by the manufacturer (100 square feet or less without building a structure).
• Certification from the Metropolitan Bus Authority or the corresponding government entity, if the sign goes on a bus stop.
• A recommendation from the Tourism Company where the proposed location is within a tourist district or tourist-interest zone.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: is it a sign or an advertisement?

   The whole difference is there. The regulation treats signs — those identifying the establishment where they stand — far more leniently than advertisements. And one rule turns the former into the latter: any sign incorporating a sponsoring company’s advertisement may not have it exceed twenty-five per cent of the sign’s size; if it does exceed that twenty-five per cent it shall be deemed an advertisement and must seek the required permits. In other words, the logo of the supplier who paid for your sign can cost you a permit if it grows too large.

2. 2

   Step 2: The sign that needs no permit

   This is the rule that saves the most money and almost nobody knows. Section 8.7.1.5 lists the signs that may be installed in any zoning district or unzoned area with no permit required, and its subsection (k) covers signs of commercial establishments and professional offices as defined in Article 4(q) of Ley 355-1999, whose size does not exceed thirty-five per cent of the front façade or a hundred square feet, whichever is greater, affixed to the façade. Two obligations come with that exemption: the application to be included in the Sign and Advertisement Register must be filed for the first time — and the regulation says expressly that a sign-maker’s licence is not necessary — and if a situation arises entailing a change of sign, a new permit must be filed.

3. 3

   Step 3: The ground sign, with no permit

   Subsection (j) of the same section covers ground signs no more than thirty feet high, no larger than a hundred square feet and with a clear height of no less than fifteen feet, provided they present a structural certification guaranteeing their stability and compliance with the Puerto Rico Building Code in force. The same conditions apply: the sponsor’s twenty-five per cent, the first-time filing in the Register, a new permit if the sign changes. And one more that is not in subsection (k): structural certifications must be submitted every three years or whenever the Building Codes change.

4. 4

   Step 4: Other signs that need no permit

   The list is long and worth reading in full before paying anything. Danger signs, for as long as the danger lasts. Temporary signs and advertisements for no more than ninety days for a governmental, civic, political, commercial, religious, charitable, artistic or sporting activity, campaign, idea or message, with the landowner’s authorisation and — if placed in a public-way easement, pavements or poles — that of DTOP or the municipality; maximum height thirty feet, maximum size two hundred square feet, non-flashing illumination, and removed within five days of the activity ending. Street banners, with DTOP or municipal authorisation, maximum fifty square feet, no more than thirty days, not within a hundred feet of a traffic light without DTOP’s prior authorisation. Construction and promotion, sale or rental signs: up to two hundred square feet in total, installable up to three months before works begin. Window or display-case signs not exceeding thirty per cent of the façade’s total window area. Company flags: one per lot, maximum a hundred square feet, a pole up to fifty feet in the front yard set back no less than twelve feet from the easement. And signs for churches, schools, public institutions and government agencies carrying no commercial message and not exceeding a hundred square feet.

5. 5

   Step 5: Prohibited signs

   Prohibited in any district or unzoned area: abandoned signs as determined by the Planning Board; rotating signs or signs with moving structures, except in shopping centres or extensive commercial recreation centres — and the prohibition does not apply to signs whose image moves through technology, such as changing electronic messages; balloon-shaped signs on roofs, other than those permitted in the exemptions section itself; signs on trees, telephone or street-lighting poles or in public-way easements; signs on trailers or vehicles parked for the purpose of advertising — which does not include buses, taxis or business vehicles in the normal course of operations; signs on pavements, except at approved public-transport stops and always complying with ADA; signs affixed to safety barriers; advertisements parallel to National Highway System roads; signs affixed to the façades of historic sites or in historic zones; and ground signs in floodway zones. Also those obstructing drivers’ field of vision, dazzling them, casting dangerous shadows, imitating traffic signals from DTOP’s manual, carrying lettering illegible at the permitted speed, placed on electrical or traffic-light poles, or with flashing illumination.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you do need a permit: forty-five days

   From the regulation’s effective date, anyone wishing to install a sign or advertisement must obtain a permit from OGPe or an autonomous municipality with hierarchy I to III, unless it is one of those expressly exempt. OGPe or the municipality shall have a maximum term of forty-five days to approve or deny the application, provided that, failing to act within that term, the permit application shall be deemed approved. Where a variance or construction permit is also sought, the term extends to ninety days. Applications are processed under the procedure in Volume II of the regulation; if the sign goes within an autonomous municipality with a permits office, it is filed there, and municipalities without that delegated power elevate the case to OGPe in digital format with the payment within five working days. The construction permit and the installation permit are handled in a single unified procedure, with a single set of documents, provided the fees for each are paid on the filing date.

7. 7

   Step 7: Annual renewal and what forgetting it costs

   Sign and advertisement permits must be renewed every twelve months from the date of issue, and the renewal application must be accompanied by an engineer’s or architect’s certification that the sign is in good condition and retains its structural safety. If you do not renew within the term, you will pay a penalty of a hundred dollars on the date you carry out the renewal if less than a year has passed since expiry, and two hundred dollars if more than a year has passed, plus the annual filing cost for each year not renewed. And this is what stings most: while the sign’s sticker is not renewed, the sign shall be deemed a sign or advertisement without a permit and shall be subject to the fines and penalties imposed by the Planning Board or the municipality.

8. 8

   Step 8: The hundred square feet you need not renew

   Section 8.7.3.2 excludes signs of up to a hundred square feet from the annual renewal requirement, with conditions: the sign must not be on the ground or rotating, it must comply with the chapter’s design guidelines, and the hundred square feet — which may be the combined sum of several signs on one property — must not be exceeded, because if the sum is over a hundred square feet the exclusion does not apply. The regulation clarifies that this is only for signs and in no way includes advertisements in the calculation. The same section adds something practical: since every commercial establishment requires a sign identifying it, along with the authorisation of the Single Permit a sign of up to a maximum of fifty square feet affixed to the property is authorised, and the service charge for the sign is included in the Single Permit’s. That sign must be affixed to the structure, its size depends on what the façade allows, any non-affixed sign is excluded, and if it is illuminated a certification from an electrical expert must accompany the filing.

9. 9

   Step 9: Changing the image, selling the business, removing the sign

   Three useful rules from the end of Section 8.7.3.1. First: changing a sign’s panel, image, text or paint does not require obtaining a new permit, so long as the size or the frame’s structure is not altered, and a sign is not turned into an advertisement. Second: transferring ownership of a permitted sign does not impair the permit’s validity, but it shall be the acquirer’s responsibility to notify OGPe of the change of owner and supply the corresponding information. Third, and this is the one that stops you paying for a sign that no longer exists: where a sign is removed or destroyed, the interested person shall file with OGPe or the municipality a sworn declaration to that effect thirty days before the permit’s renewal date, or otherwise must go on paying the renewal fees.

10. 10

    Step 10: What this guide does not cover

    We say it plainly because it matters. We read in full Rule 8.7.1 — legal basis, purposes, scope, prohibitions and the signs needing no permit — and Rule 8.7.3 — permits, renewal exclusions, procedure and documents. We did not read Rules 8.7.4 to 8.7.16, which contain the design and construction parameters, the district-by-district size and height tables (residential, commercial, industrial, RT-I, RT-A, R-G, A-G, A-P, A-B, C-R, C-H, S-H, P-P, P-R), the tourist-interest zones, variances, the Sign-Makers Register and the register of existing signs. If you are sizing a sign for a specific district, those rules govern and must be read: this guide does not replace them.

At OGPe, or at the permits office of the autonomous municipality with hierarchy I to III where the sign is located. Municipalities with hierarchy I to III that do not have that delegated power elevate the case to OGPe in digital format, with the payment, within no more than five working days of filing.

• Paying for a permit for an affixed sign that exceeds neither 35% of the façade nor a hundred square feet.
• Letting the sponsor’s logo pass twenty-five per cent and turning the sign into an advertisement.
• Not filing for the first time in the Sign and Advertisement Register, even where the sign is permit-exempt.
• Adding up the property’s signs past a hundred square feet, losing the annual-renewal exclusion.
• Counting advertisements within those hundred square feet: the exclusion is for signs only.
• Letting the permit expire and carrying on: the sign counts as permitless while unrenewed.
• Removing the sign without filing the sworn declaration thirty days before renewal.
• Buying a business with a permitted sign and not notifying OGPe of the change of owner.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov