Social-interest residential project: relaxed parameters, fee exemption and the reserved 5%

It is Chapter 5.2 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, "Social-Interest Residential Projects". In it the Planning Board set requirements different from those in the regulation in force on segregations, qualification, building and neighbourhood facilities, for developing residential projects for low- and moderate-income families sponsored by the Department of Housing, now under the Public and Private Sector Co-participation Programme for the New Housing Operation. The purpose, in the regulation’s own words, is to reduce the cost of housing units: among the alternatives for making housing cheaper was reducing the requirements for infrastructure, neighbourhood facilities and the unit’s interior installations, and achieving that made liberalising the regulation in force imperative.

The chapter’s minimum requirements may be used by private developers to build low-cost housing projects under the Public and Private Sector Co-participation Programme for the New Housing Operation sponsored by the Department of Housing. Private projects seeking to develop under these provisions must be channelled through the Department of Housing, and the filing must be accompanied by a Social-Interest Housing Project Certification issued by the Secretary. The chapter’s provisions apply to projects certified or proposed by the Department, and constitute minimum requirements: where conditions so require, higher requirements may be set. In authorising these particular provisions, OGPe’s Adjudicative Board or the hierarchy I-III municipality shall consider the aspects Section 5.2.1.1 itself lists.

• Channelling the private project through the Department of Housing in order to develop it under these provisions.Verified against the official source
• Accompanying the filing with the Social-Interest Housing Project Certification issued by the Secretary of Housing, which in sale projects includes the maximum sale price per unit permitted by law and in rental projects for low- and moderate-income families says so.Verified against the official source
• For the impact-fee exemption: obtaining that same certification; and if the Government Entity Concerned allows paying the fee in instalments, posting a financial guarantee bond in its favour issued by a company authorised by the Insurance Commissioner’s Office.Verified against the official source
• Observing the table’s minimum lot sizes where there is a sanitary sewer; and where there is none, determining them from percolation test results, the water table and the location of groundwater-use systems.Verified against the official source
• Meeting the chapter’s infrastructure and construction minimums, which may not conflict with any building code in force.Verified against the official source
• In social-interest housing projects subsidised by the Government of Puerto Rico: reserving five per cent of the total units for elderly persons or persons with disabilities who qualify to acquire them.Verified against the official source

• Social-Interest Housing Project Certification issued by the Secretary of Housing, accompanying the project’s filing.
• Where paying the impact fee in instalments is allowed: the financial guarantee bond in favour of the Government Entity Concerned, issued by a company duly authorised by the Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
• Where no sanitary sewer is provided: the percolation test results and the information on the water table and the location of groundwater-use systems, which are the basis for the minimum lot size.
• In projects the Department of Housing acquires by direct purchase — the "llave en mano" or Turnkey Project method: the Department’s official letter saying so, to be included with the documents when the project is filed.

1. 1

   Step 1: What this chapter exists for

   The Planning Board set requirements different from those of the regulation in force on segregations, qualification, building and neighbourhood facilities, and the regulation says why without circumlocution: the purpose of the particular provisions granted is to reduce the cost of housing units. They were justified on the basis of a large number of low- and moderate-income families who did not qualify, under the programmes of the time, to buy the housing the market offered that suited their needs. Among the alternatives for making housing cheaper was reducing the requirements for infrastructure, neighbourhood facilities and the unit’s interior installations; achieving that made liberalising the regulation in force imperative.

2. 2

   Step 2: The impact-fee exemption

   It is the chapter’s provision with the greatest economic consequence, and it fits in two sentences. Social-interest housing development projects that obtain a Social-Interest Housing Project Certification issued by the Secretary of Housing shall be exempt from impact fee contributions. And, provided that where the Government Entity Concerned allows the impact fee to be paid in instalments, the proponent must post a financial guarantee bond in that entity’s favour securing that payment, issued by a company duly authorised by the Insurance Commissioner’s Office. No certification, no exemption.

3. 3

   Step 3: Minimum lot size, by housing type

   Where the project has a sanitary sewer system, the minimum area in square metres runs as follows, first at one level and then at two. Casas patio: one hundred and one hundred with one bedroom; one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred with two; one hundred and seventy-five and one hundred and fifty with three. Row houses: one hundred and fifty in every case, one, two or three bedrooms, at one or two levels. Apartments: one hundred in every case. Individual houses: two hundred in every case. Where no sanitary sewer is provided, the minimum size is determined from percolation test results, the water table and the location of groundwater-use systems. And there is an escape clause for the agency: the one with jurisdiction shall ensure the development has adequate infrastructure and does not degrade environmental quality, and may require stricter parameters where circumstances warrant.

4. 4

   Step 4: Yards, frontages and parking

   The yards table gives, by housing type, the minimum frontage in metres and the yards. Individual houses: eleven-metre frontage, two-metre front yard, three-metre rear yard of which two shall be flat, and two side yards whose sum shall not be less than four metres, with a minimum yard of one point six metres where the wall has windows. Casas patio: nine and a half frontage, two front, three rear with two flat, and one side yard of two and a half. Interior row houses: five and a half frontage, two front, three rear with two flat, no side yards. Exterior row houses: eight and a half frontage, two front, three rear with two flat, and one side yard of two metres where the wall is solid and three if it has windows. Walk-up or walk-down apartment houses: variable frontage, three front, three rear, and one side yard of two metres with a solid wall and three with windows. For parking, a paved space of a minimum of one hundred and eighty square feet is provided within the lot per housing unit; in apartment houses, one paved space per unit.

5. 5

   Step 5: Streets, sidewalks and storm drainage

   A minimum right of way of eleven metres may be provided for local streets and not less than thirteen metres for trunk or collector streets. The minimum carriageway width may be seven metres on local streets and eight on trunk or collector ones. Concrete sidewalks are built on both sides of the streets no less than one and a quarter metres wide, and any difference may be subtracted from the planting area. Planting areas are provided on both sides one metre wide on local streets and one and a quarter on trunk or collector ones, with concrete kerbing on the trunk or collector ones. As for storm drainage: it may be provided along the street surface where the catchment area, topography and street layout permit; where the flow study shows the gutter’s capacity is exceeded, storm sewer works must supplement it; projects are designed so that every lot drains toward the front; and any off-site work must be contemplated in the project’s design and construction.

6. 6

   Step 6: The infrastructure minimums

   Sanitary sewer: AAA minimum standards apply, PVC approved by the AAA may be used for the laterals, systems use eight-inch diameter sewers, and two contiguous houses may share a four-inch lateral subdivided in two where the design includes back-to-back bathrooms, with independent inspection registers. Water distribution: type-K ASTM-B-88 copper services of half an inch in diameter, with the option of three-quarter-inch services subdivided into two half-inch ones to serve two contiguous houses; four-inch pipe in the exterior distribution system and two-inch in short branches where no future extensions are contemplated; the distance between fire hydrants shall be a maximum of one hundred and fifty metres; and meters may be located in the planting area or on a sidewalk where there is none, clear of vehicle or pedestrian entrances. Exterior electrical distribution: AEE minimum standards under the National Electrical Code in force are met, primary lines may be built overhead while secondary lines are built underground, and public street lighting is provided. Neighbourhood facilities: OGPe or the municipality may exempt projects from complying with Rule 5.1.7, and as a minimum the park area must be properly graded and levelled.

7. 7

   Step 7: The minimums inside the house

   The chapter goes down to the detail. The living-dining room shall have minimum areas of up to one hundred and fifty square feet; the master bedroom, eighty square feet excluding the closet; the bathroom, thirty-two square feet with a width no less than five feet ten inches in the shower area; the kitchen, fifty square feet; the house, a minimum clear height of eight feet. An uncovered front balcony of at least thirty-three square feet may be provided, and interior and semi-interior patios with a minimum width of seven feet between walls are permitted. On the electrical side: a one-hundred-amp distribution panel with a minimum of eight circuits located toward the dwelling’s interior; not fewer than two double fifteen-amp, one-hundred-and-twenty-volt grounded receptacles in the living room, dining room and bedrooms; in the kitchen, a single two-hundred-and-twenty-volt receptacle for the stove and oven plus two fifteen-amp ones, with automatic ground-fault protection where they are less than six feet from the sink; and in the bathroom, at least one double receptacle with ground-fault protection near the washbasin, which may not be connected to the normal lighting circuits. Toilets and their flush valves shall not exceed three and a half gallons per flush, and washbasins and showers shall not exceed three gallons per minute at a constant pressure of sixty pounds per square inch. Floors are ceramic tile, "Perltex" is not accepted on ceilings, and the unit must be painted in its entirety, inside and out, with a minimum of two coats. All of this, says the chapter itself, may not conflict with any building code in force.

8. 8

   Step 8: The reserved five per cent

   Social-interest housing projects subsidised by the Government of Puerto Rico must reserve five per cent of the total housing units for elderly persons or persons with disabilities who qualify to acquire them. If those units are unsold when the housing project is completed, the developer is authorised to sell them on the general market. An elderly person is anyone over sixty. A person with a disability is anyone who has a physical, mental or cognitive impairment substantially and permanently limiting one or more essential life activities; who has a history or medical record of such an impairment; or who is regarded as having one. A detail from the source we prefer to flag: this rule — about whom the units are sold to — is printed as an inciso of the list headed "Terminaciones" (finishes), right after the paragraph on closets. We reproduce it where it stands, without moving it.

9. 9

   Step 9: The maximum sale price and the Plano de Inscripción

   The filing must be accompanied by the Social-Interest Housing Project Certification issued by the Secretary of Housing. In sale projects, that certification includes the maximum sale price per unit permitted by law; in rental projects for low- and moderate-income families, the certification says so. OGPe or the municipality shall ensure these provisions are met and shall grant no construction permit for new buildings in these urbanizaciones exceeding the sale price so determined; it shall likewise establish that maximum price per unit in the corresponding use permits and, especially, in the Plano de Inscripción. There is an exception: the maximum sale price per unit need not be included in projects the Department acquires by direct purchase, that is, by the method known as "llave en mano" or Turnkey Project; in those cases the Department must say so in an official letter included with the documents when the project is filed, so that it assumes responsibility for the project once built and its sale price to buyers is guaranteed. We publish no price figure: the regulation says the certification states it, and prints no number.

Private projects seeking to develop under these provisions must be channelled through the Department of Housing, which is also what issues the Social-Interest Housing Project Certification through its Secretary. Adjudication and the permits fall to OGPe — to its Adjudicative Board where these particular provisions are authorised — or to the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, which also establishes the maximum sale price per unit in the use permits and in the Plano de Inscripción.

• Counting on the impact-fee exemption without having obtained the Secretary of Housing’s certification.
• Paying the fee in instalments without posting the bond in favour of the Government Entity Concerned.
• Filing the private project without channelling it through the Department of Housing.
• Treating lot sizes as fixed parameters: the agency with jurisdiction may require stricter ones.
• Using the lot table where there is no sanitary sewer, instead of determining the size by percolation.
• Burying only the primary lines: it is the secondary distribution lines that are built underground.
• Forgetting the five-per-cent reserve in projects subsidised by the Government of Puerto Rico.
• Selling above the maximum price per unit recorded in the use permits and in the Plano de Inscripción.

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

• Department of Housing

  vivienda

  www.vivienda.pr.gov