Roads, storm easements and grading in an urbanisation

These are the infrastructure rules of Chapter 5.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473: Rule 5.1.6 on circulation systems, Rule 5.1.9 on improvements in segregations — water, used water, stormwater, storm easements, electrical system, solid waste and telecommunications — and Rule 5.1.10 on grading and off-site improvements. The circulation system, the regulation says, is designed to permit safe, efficient and orderly movement of vehicles and pedestrians to and from the parcelled space, accommodate anticipated traffic volumes, respect natural features and topography, and present an agreeable public environment. This guide is for someone designing or buying in an urbanisation, and for someone already living in one who wants to know what they may and may not do with the easement strip they got.

It applies to urbanisation and subdivision projects processed before OGPe or before a hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, and its effects live on afterwards: legally constituted storm easements bind assignees, successors in title and successors in law, so the rules reach whoever buys a lot years later. Kerb and gutter are required on every public road in an urban or urbanisable zone, and that requirement is waived for subdivisions or urbanisation of non-qualified land or in rustic or rural soil, unless needed to give continuity to the works, manage stormwater, stabilise the pavement edge or define intersections, corners and tight curves. Sidewalks are required for every subdivision in an urban zone or urban or urbanisable soil, depending on the width of the travelled surface, and may be waived in rustic soil where it is shown there will be no pedestrian traffic.

• That every street to be formed have a minimum width of eleven metres, and that every dead-end street end in an area of not less than six by six metres additional to one side for vehicles to turn.Verified against the official source
• The Highways and Transportation Authority’s recommendation before the circulation system is authorised, under the Regulation for the Control of Accesses and Works or Construction Facilities on Puerto Rico’s Public Roads in force.Verified against the official source
• For access through a public road: the Municipal Government’s authorisation accepting the street or streets once built, by public document filed at the Registro de la Propiedad with the plano de inscripción, and the public deeds of cession in favour of the municipality.Verified against the official source
• That the development’s stormwater runoff discharges not exceed the parcel’s existing-state discharges for all rain intensities and durations after construction.Verified against the official source
• The DRNA’s endorsement on any parcel containing a sinkhole, and for the alternatives for stormwater discharge to a sinkhole.Verified against the official source
• Dedicating to public use, by registration at the Registro de la Propiedad, a strip of land at least five lineal metres wide on both sides of a water body’s bed: ceded to the municipality if it is a stream or brook, and to the DRNA in all other cases.Verified against the official source
• To deposit fill on a property as an activity independent of an urbanisation process, whether by purchase or free of charge: an OGPe authorisation, for which the DRNA’s endorsement is required.Verified against the official source
• That every storm easement be left free of structures or buildings, provided the municipality does not establish otherwise.Verified against the official source

• To register the storm easements at the Registro de la Propiedad it suffices to file: a duly notarised certification issued by OGPe constituting the easements, stating the affected properties or lots, the owners, the nature of the easement and the municipality holding the right; and the OGPe-approved Planos de Inscripción graphically illustrating the storm easements, which are filed at the Registro together with the certification.
• A hydrological-hydraulic study prepared under the Planning Board’s Guidelines for Preparing Hydrological-Hydraulic Studies, to show that every work over or in water bodies or the natural drainage system permits discharge of a 100-year recurrence rainfall event and does not alter flood levels.
• Where building the storm sewer makes a variation in the lines’ route necessary: an amended official plan graphically and to scale reflecting that variation, with the municipality’s endorsement, filed with OGPe within fifteen days before the variation is made, preserving the easement strip’s minimum widths.

1. 1

   Step 1: The street measurements

   Every street to be formed has a minimum width of eleven metres. Any dead-end street ends in an area of not less than six by six metres additional to one side of the street for vehicles to turn, and dead-end streets to be extended later get a provisional turning area of the same size. Streets are laid out to integrate efficiently, functionally and adequately with the existing network and the neighbourhood’s development. No public road has a gradient under half a per cent nor greater than the regulation’s table indicates. At corners, crossings and alleys are eased by an arc of minimum radius three and a half metres and one and a half metres respectively, and kerbs are laid out circular with minimum radius four and a half metres and two and a half metres; where the smaller intersection angle is under sixty degrees, those minimum radii are larger. The regulation also includes a Road Types Table with rights of way of 36.00, 20.60, 15.00, 13.00, 11.00 and 6.00 metres by type; the scan of that table is damaged in several rows, so if you are designing a road, read it directly in the PDF.

2. 2

   Step 2: Who ends up owning the street

   For access through a public road, the Municipal Government’s authorisation accepting the street or streets, once built, must be submitted by public document filed at the Registro de la Propiedad with the plano de inscripción, together with the corresponding public deeds of cession in favour of the municipality. For access through a private road, the parcels or private access facilities are dedicated by public document and title vests in the residents’ association or the consejo de titulares, as applicable, for a residential urbanisation of single-family lots or of several lots for urbanisations, condominiums or multifamily projects; or in the developer or its successors or assignees, or in an association or other entity composed of the owners of the individual parcels or projects, for mixed-use or other projects, including complex or master projects of two or more parcels or sub-projects.

3. 3

   Step 3: Access easements: six metres and a single lot

   Section 5.1.6.12 is short and decisive: easements may be used as access in residential subdivisions only to give access to one lot, and the easement’s minimum width is six metres. It will not serve three houses. And where the partial development of land leaves a remnant that depends on the proposed roads for access, lacking access to an existing and adequate state or municipal road, access must be provided to that remnant, and that access is never less than eleven metres wide for a remnant of five cuerdas or less, nor less than thirteen metres for a remnant over five cuerdas.

4. 4

   Step 4: Sidewalks, ramps and the ADA

   Sidewalks are required for every subdivision in an urban zone or urban or urbanisable soil, depending on the travelled surface’s width, and residential projects must have sidewalks on both sides of the road. Continuing or extending existing sidewalks, or providing them near pedestrian traffic generators, may be required even in rustic soil. The design of sidewalks, ramps and pedestrian accesses must meet the criteria of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the clearance needed for a wheelchair must be provided per ADAAG 4.3.3 of the U.S. Access Board. Ramps are provided in each crossing direction, coinciding with the corresponding pedestrian crossing, and diagonal or corner ramps are avoided, as they are a hazard for blind people.

5. 5

   Step 5: The golden rule of stormwater

   For any development the amount of runoff the parcel produces in its existing state is determined, and the development’s stormwater runoff discharges shall not exceed the parcel’s existing-state discharges for all rain intensities and durations after construction. Retention ponds, control of the discharge pipe’s size and storage capacity in the pipes, among other measures, may be used. If ponds are used, a minimum three-metre area around the top of the slope is provided, which is part of the storm system, is dedicated to public use, and the municipalities are obliged to accept it. Where discharge to a sinkhole is an option, an alternatives evaluation must be included, evaluated by the DRNA, and the selected alternative must have its endorsement. In addition, the DRNA’s endorsement is required on any parcel containing a sinkhole. Every work over or in water bodies or the natural drainage system must be designed to permit discharge of a 100-year recurrence rainfall event, may not alter flood levels, and must demonstrate that with a hydrological-hydraulic study.

6. 6

   Step 6: The five-metre strip along the water

   A strip of land at least five lineal metres wide on both sides of a water body’s channel or bed is dedicated to public use, in the general interest of the water body’s conservation, by registration at the Registro de la Propiedad. Where the water body is a stream or brook, that strip is ceded to the municipality in whose jurisdiction it sits; in all other cases it is ceded to the DRNA. The strip is kept clear and may not be used for purposes other than conservation. Only passive recreational uses are permitted, ones that do not entail obstruction, do not conflict with conservation or cleaning functions, and are related to enjoying the water body.

7. 7

   Step 7: The storm easement in your yard

   As a general rule, storm sewer easements are provided comprising a strip of land five feet — one metre fifty-two — or more wide measured on each side of the lots’ rear, side or front boundaries, extending along all affected lots, in a total width of ten feet — three metres four — or more, as the approved plan indicates. Every storm sewer and drainage easement is a legal, continuous and apparent easement, governed by Act No. 143-1979, by the Regulation and by the Civil Code’s provisions. What to know if you already live there: any work or activity incompatible with the easement’s use and enjoyment is prohibited; save written municipal authorisation, excavating, driving piles and introducing devices or objects of any kind into the covered ground is expressly prohibited; the easements must be left free of structures or buildings; on a competent court’s order the municipality may demolish any structure built over them and charge the owners, designers or developers for the removal; and there is no right to any compensation for removing structures and trees built or planted over the easement in violation of the regulation.

8. 8

   Step 8: And what the municipality owes you

   The easement is not one-way. The easement right includes the municipality’s right of access through its officials, employees and representatives, with the necessary equipment, but that access is carried out after notice to the affected owners and by the least burdensome route for the property and the lots, provided that does not impair the public interest or the system’s proper use and maintenance. And after carrying out any activity on or over the easement, the municipality must restore the soil to its original condition, and must likewise correct, repair or restore to its original condition any alteration or damage caused to the lot outside the easements. In addition, at the owner’s, designer’s or developer’s request, the municipality may authorise activities and works over the storm easements where it determines they are reasonably compatible with an efficient service, issuing its written consent with the conditions it deems necessary.

9. 9

   Step 9: Grading: slopes, gradient and how much land stays untouched

   Drainage is positive towards the streets. For lots with depth between twenty-three and twenty-four metres in an R-I Residential District or similar, a rear slope not exceeding two metres in height is acceptable. For lots with frontage between twelve and thirteen metres, side slopes may not exceed one metre in height, and a front slope starting at the sidewalk’s inner edge of no more than sixty centimetres is permitted. The difference in level between two lots, on their common side, shall under no condition exceed two metres. Every lot must have a usable, relatively flat, minimum depth of twenty-one metres. And two tables decide a great deal before anything is drawn: the land’s average original gradient determines the minimum lot size — under 20%, whatever is determined appropriate; 20 to 25%, two cuerdas; 25 to 30%, five cuerdas; 30 to 35%, ten cuerdas — and also the area that must remain in its natural state unaltered, with values of 70, 80, 90 and 99 for those same bands and for gradients over 35%. That second column’s heading is not legible in the scan, so we give the figures as printed and do not assume their unit.

10. 10

    Step 10: Fills and off-site improvements

    Anyone intending to allow fill to be deposited on their property as an activity independent of an urbanisation process, whether by purchase or free of charge, must obtain an OGPe authorisation, for which the DRNA’s endorsement is required — the DRNA will ensure, among other things, that the fill does not alter runoff, inappropriately divert watercourses, obstruct sinkholes, affect natural resources or cause flooding. On off-site improvements: OGPe or the hierarchy I-III autonomous municipality may require the design, construction, dedication to public use or contributions for any infrastructure determined necessary to accommodate the population or user increase the project entails. The imposition is made at the stage the need is identified, as far as possible at the first approval stage. They may be prorated among several projects being considered at the same time, and if one is not carried out, the total costs are borne by the projects that begin construction. And the off-site works are built before more than half the constructions on the parcel are authorised.

OGPe or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality evaluates the project. The Highways and Transportation Authority’s recommendation is required before the circulation system is authorised. Acceptance of the streets, once built, comes from the Municipal Government by public document filed at the Registro de la Propiedad with the plano de inscripción. Storm easements are registered with a notarised certification issued by OGPe plus the approved Planos de Inscripción. The DRNA’s endorsement is required for independent fills, for any parcel containing a sinkhole, for the alternatives for stormwater discharge to a sinkhole, and for used-water disposal systems not contemplated in the regulation. And the conservation strip along a water body is ceded to the municipality if it is a stream or brook, and to the DRNA in all other cases.

• Building a room, a pool or a carport over the lot’s storm easement.
• Planting trees over the storm easement: their removal creates no right to any compensation.
• Excavating or driving piles into the ground covered by the easement without the municipality’s written authorisation.
• Designing an access easement to serve two or more lots, when it is permitted for one only.
• Projecting an access easement less than six metres wide.
• Leaving a dead-end street without the six-by-six-metre turning area.
• Assuming stormwater discharges may increase after building: they may not exceed the parcel’s existing-state discharges.
• Depositing fill on the property without OGPe’s authorisation and the DRNA’s endorsement.

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 Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov