Tourist residential districts RT-I and RT-A: what is allowed and on what parameters

They are Rules 6.1.10 and 6.1.11 of Chapter 6.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. District RT-I, Intermediate Tourist Residential, and RT-A, High Density Tourist Residential, are established in the Tourist Interest Zones to promote orderly, aesthetic and compact development, and to qualify land that by its location and infrastructure has been or may be developed at an intermediate density and intensity in the first case and a high one in the second. Each rule carries its permitted-use table, its list of uses by exception, its design parameter table and a section of its own for guest houses.

The parameters and uses apply to properties qualified RT-I or RT-A. In RT-A the uses of district RT-I are additionally permitted if not in RT-A’s own table, and commercial or service uses are permitted on the first two levels. RT-I’s guest-house section applies to those with more than fifteen lodging units; RT-A’s, to those with more than twenty-five, and those require the Tourism Company’s certification. Local commercial use by exception applies to apartment-house projects of two hundred or more dwelling units. And exceptions granted remain subject to compliance with the conditions established and with the Regulation’s other provisions.

• In RT-I intermediate density: a lot of at least three hundred square metres, a minimum width of fifteen metres, maximum occupation of sixty per cent and maximum gross floor area of one hundred and eighty per cent.Verified against the official source
• In RT-I low density: a lot of at least two thousand square metres, a minimum width of thirty-five metres and maximum occupation of fifteen per cent, with one unit per two thousand square metres.Verified against the official source
• In RT-A: a lot of at least one thousand square metres, a minimum width of twenty metres, maximum occupation of fifty per cent, maximum gross floor area of three hundred and fifty per cent and one dwelling unit per eighty square metres of lot area.Verified against the official source
• In RT-A: eighteen metres of separation between principal buildings or areas on the same lot, and a rear yard and side yards no less than one fifth of the building’s height where that figure exceeds three metres.Verified against the official source
• That the gross floor area of any storey above the first not exceed the district’s maximum permitted occupation percentage.Verified against the official source
• In a holiday mobile-home project: no more than twenty mobile homes per cuerda of the premises, with at least one parking space per home, and no more than thirty per cent of the premises devoted to parking and manoeuvring.Verified against the official source
• In a holiday mobile-home project: a minimum separation of five metres in width and six metres in depth between units, and a three-metre setback from every boundary with another lot, planted with trees and landscaped.Verified against the official source
• In a holiday mobile-home project beside bodies of water: twenty-five metres from the limit of the maritime-terrestrial zone as delimited by DRNA, ten metres from the outer edge of the channel of rivers, canals and streams, and twenty-five metres from the acquisition limit of AAA and AEE at lakes and lagoons.Verified against the official source
• For a teaching institution by exception: eight square metres of land per student, classrooms computed at twenty square feet per student, a minimum separation of three hundred and five metres from any lot with a petrol station, yards twice those required in the district and a public hearing prior to authorisation.Verified against the official source
• For local commercial use by exception: fifteen square feet of floor area per dwelling unit provided, on the first storey, with no use occupying more than fifty per cent of the total commercial area and no fewer than three of the uses the rule lists.Verified against the official source
• In guest houses: not giving commercial characteristics to the structures, computing the density assuming one room equals 0.4 basic dwelling unit, and serving food and alcoholic drinks only to guests and invitees between 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M.Verified against the official source
• In RT-A guest houses with more than twenty-five lodging units: the Tourism Company’s certification.Verified against the official source

• Recommendation of the Tourism Company prior to authorisation, for signs and advertisements in both districts.
• Tourism Company certification, for guest houses with more than twenty-five lodging units in RT-A.
• Endorsement from DRNA and other concerned governmental agencies, for every mobile-home project within or adjacent to an area of environmental, natural and cultural importance.
• Land development concept, for the teaching institution proposing other buildings for related uses on the same premises.

1. 1

   Step 1: Why the two districts are established

   Both are residential districts in the Tourist Interest Zones and both are established to promote orderly, aesthetic and compact development, and to qualify land that by its location and infrastructure has been or may be developed at a certain density and intensity. The difference is the level: RT-I is intermediate density and intensity; RT-A, high. RT-I adds a second purpose: it includes land on the periphery of developed areas or with some limitations on its use, which could be developed at a low intensity, or to facilitate the siting of tourist and recreational projects, subject to the availability of infrastructure in the area and where the landscape character and natural conditions of the place must be kept. Hence its parameter table has two columns.

2. 2

   Step 2: Which uses are permitted

   RT-I’s table groups the uses in four columns. Residential: single-family dwelling, dwelling at second-storey level, patio house, terraced house, apartment house, tiny houses, mobile home, bed and breakfast, and short-term supplementary lodging. Guest houses: agro-lodge, agro-lodging, guest house, eco-lodge, hostel, hotel, condohotel, tourist villa and holiday centre. Services: travel agencies, restaurants on lots fronting a main road, childcare centres, specialised lodgings, and car rental on lots fronting a main road. And others: startups limited to twenty-five per cent of the property or structure, which may not produce objectionable noise, dust or odours; sale of essential goods; parking; and souvenir sales. RT-A’s table is practically the same, and the rule adds two clarifications: the uses of district RT-I are permitted if not in RT-A’s table, and commercial or service uses are permitted on the first two levels.

3. 3

   Step 3: RT-I’s parameters, in two columns

   In intermediate density: minimum lot area of three hundred square metres, minimum width of fifteen metres, maximum occupation area of sixty per cent and maximum gross floor area of one hundred and eighty per cent. In low density: minimum area of two thousand square metres, minimum width of thirty-five metres and maximum occupation area of fifteen per cent; the density is one unit per two thousand square metres, and on lots larger than two thousand square metres houses of one or two dwelling units are allowed. In both columns, the gross floor area of any storey above the first may in no case exceed the district’s maximum permitted occupation percentage, and in hotels the common areas do not count toward the gross floor area computation. A note on the source: the maximum gross floor area cell of the low-density column is printed as "gam", which is not a figure; we publish no percentage for that column.

4. 4

   Step 4: RT-I’s yards

   In intermediate density, the front yard is three metres and will have a minimum of fifty per cent of its area planted; the rear one has a minimum depth of three metres; and there are two side yards, each no less than two metres wide and whose sum is no less than five metres. In low density, the front yard rises to five metres, also with fifty per cent planted, and adds the planting of one tree at least three and a half metres tall per dwelling unit; the rear one is five metres, and the two side yards five metres each. In both columns, cornices, eaves, roofs and other architectural features may extend into the required yards up to one metre, and open cantilevered balconies are allowed up to one metre into the front and rear yards, provided they do not project beyond the building’s sides and keep a separation of no less than one and a half metres from any side or rear boundary line.

5. 5

   Step 5: RT-A’s parameters

   RT-A has a single column, labelled compact development at high intensity. The minimum lot area is one thousand square metres and the minimum width twenty metres — printed in the source as "20 matras", which we report as it stands. The maximum occupation area is fifty per cent and the maximum gross floor area three hundred and fifty per cent, with the same two conditions as RT-I on storeys above the first and hotel common areas. The population density is one unit per eighty square metres of lot area. The front yard is three metres with fifty per cent planted. The rear one has a depth no less than three metres or one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater. And two side yards are required, each no less than three metres wide or one fifth of the building’s height, whichever is greater. Besides, there is an eighteen-metre separation between principal buildings or areas on the same lot.

6. 6

   Step 6: The holiday mobile-home project

   It is the most detailed use by exception, and it appears on the same terms in both rules. The land may not comprise areas susceptible to floods, landslides, slips or storm surges, and must have the necessary infrastructure. Beside bodies of water, the minimum setbacks to the nearest point of the parking area are twenty-five metres at oceans and seas from the limit of the maritime-terrestrial zone as delimited by DRNA, ten metres at rivers, canals and streams from the outer edge of the channel, and twenty-five metres at lakes and lagoons from the acquisition limit of AAA and AEE. That setback space may be used for camping huts, play areas and other recreational facilities, but no permanent structures may be built except showers and changing rooms. Toward the remaining boundaries there is a three-metre setback, planted with trees and landscaped.

7. 7

   Step 7: The mobile-home project’s arithmetic

   Up to twenty mobile homes per cuerda of the premises are allowed, and at least one parking space per mobile home must be provided. The land used to park the mobile homes and cars, as well as the space and accesses for manoeuvring, may not exceed thirty per cent of the premises. Mobile homes shall keep a minimum separation of five metres in width and six metres in depth. The property’s access may not have a carriageway width under six metres, compacted or asphalted, and the minimum width of internal circulation roads is ten metres, though internal works may be simple and minimal, without asphalt or concrete, providing only compaction. Every project of twenty-five homes or more must provide a play area with recreational facilities for children, and may be authorised provisions-sale facilities. And where the project exceeds twenty-five homes, the units must be distributed in groups of twelve or fewer, each group separated from another by buffer strips twelve metres wide.

8. 8

   Step 8: What the mobile-home project does not allow

   Three prohibitions close the paragraph. The segregation or lotification of mobile-home spaces or lots in holiday projects developed under these provisions is not permitted. Mobile homes may not be used as permanent dwellings, and to that end the units must rest on temporary or removable bases. And no construction of any material is permitted as an extension to the mobile home; only an aluminium or canvas curtain held from a single side is allowed. Separately, earth movement shall be minimal and only at accesses and parking areas, solid waste disposal must comply with DRNA, the Department of Health and any other concerned body, and every project within or adjacent to an area of environmental, natural and cultural importance must obtain the endorsement of DRNA and other concerned governmental agencies.

9. 9

   Step 9: The other exceptions

   The teaching institution of pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher level is considered by exception with a public hearing prior to authorisation, and with size rules of its own: the minimum land area is computed at eight square metres per student, the size of classrooms at twenty square feet per student, the buildings shall keep yards twice those required in the district, and the lot must keep a minimum separation of three hundred and five metres from any other lot where a petrol station is sited or has previously been authorised, measured between the nearest points. The philanthropic institution with non-pecuniary or charitable purposes also carries a public hearing. And local commercial use is permitted only in apartment-house projects of two hundred or more dwelling units: fifteen square feet of floor area per unit provided, on the first storey of the apartment house nearest the required neighbourhood installations; limited to grocery, pharmacy, professional office, cafeteria, shake and frappé sales, automatic laundry, bazaar, beauty salon and barbershop; no use may occupy more than fifty per cent of the total commercial area; and installations for no fewer than three of those uses must be provided.

10. 10

    Step 10: Guest houses

    Each rule closes with its guest-house section. In RT-I it applies to those with more than fifteen lodging units; in RT-A, to those with more than twenty-five, and in that case the Tourism Company’s certification is additionally required. From there on the conditions are the same: no commercial characteristics shall be given to the structures; the permit shall contain the conditions OGPe and the Autonomous Municipality with Hierarchy I to III understand necessary to protect the neighbourhood’s health and general welfare; where the number of guest bedrooms exceeds fifteen, the side and rear yard sizes must meet district RT-I’s design parameters; and the density is computed on the district’s permitted density, assuming one room equals 0.4 basic dwelling unit. A note on the source: RT-I opens the section at more than fifteen units and RT-A at more than twenty-five, but both make the yard rule depend on exceeding fifteen bedrooms; the text does not reconcile the two thresholds, and neither do we.

11. 11

    Step 11: Food and drink in the guest house

    Guest houses may serve food and alcoholic drinks limited to guests and invitees, and the regulation sets four conditions. Food and alcoholic drinks will be served only between 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. No exterior signs indicating the availability of food and alcoholic drinks may be posted. The dining room’s maximum seating, in chairs and tables, equals the number of beds available. And the possible authorisation of alcoholic drink sales shall not be understood as a permit to operate a bar nor to set up a specific place for its consumption. Apart from all of this, in both districts signs and advertisements are conditioned on the Tourism Company’s recommendation prior to authorisation.

Permits are processed before OGPe, an Authorised Professional or an Autonomous Municipality with Hierarchy I to III, according to each one’s scope. The exceptions — the teaching institution, the philanthropic institution, the holiday mobile-home project and local commercial use — are filed before the Junta Adjudicativa, and the first two carry a public hearing prior to authorisation. The Tourism Company’s recommendation for signs and advertisements, and its certification for guest houses over twenty-five units in RT-A, are requested from that corporation. And the property’s qualification is read on the Planning Board’s qualification maps.

• Applying RT-I’s intermediate-density column to a lot that falls under the low-density one, or the reverse.
• Counting on sixty per cent occupation on an RT-I low-density lot, where the maximum is fifteen per cent.
• Planning more than one unit per two thousand square metres in RT-I’s low density.
• Designing a storey above the first with a gross floor area greater than the district’s maximum occupation percentage.
• Counting a hotel’s common areas in the gross floor area computation, when the regulation excludes them.
• Computing RT-A’s density without the ratio of one unit per eighty square metres of lot area.
• Forgetting in RT-A that the rear and side yards rise to one fifth of the building’s height where that figure exceeds three metres.
• Ignoring RT-A’s eighteen-metre separation between principal buildings or areas on the same lot.
• Omitting the planting of a three-and-a-half-metre tree per dwelling unit in RT-I’s low density.
• Placing more than twenty mobile homes per cuerda, or devoting more than thirty per cent of the premises to parking and manoeuvring.
• Leaving less than five metres of width or six metres of depth of separation between mobile homes.
• Segregating or lotifying the mobile-home spaces of a holiday project, which the regulation prohibits.
• Using the mobile homes as permanent dwellings or extending them with construction of any material.
• Exceeding twenty-five mobile homes without distributing them in groups of twelve or fewer with twelve-metre buffer strips.
• Processing signs or advertisements without the Tourism Company’s recommendation prior to authorisation.
• Opening a guest house of more than twenty-five units in RT-A without the Tourism Company’s certification.
• Serving food or alcoholic drinks to people who are not guests or invitees, or outside the 7:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. hours.
• Posting exterior signs advertising a guest house’s food or alcoholic drinks.
• Seating more chairs and tables in the guest house’s dining room than beds available.
• Taking a guest house’s authorisation to sell alcoholic drinks as a permit to operate a bar.

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

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov