2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-THREE - Public Planning and Development (§§ 1 — 11273) › PART V - Municipal Development (§§ 5001 — 5216) › Chapter 122 - Martín Peña Canal Special Planning District Integrated Development Act (§§ 5031 — 5066) › § 5032 - Public policy

It shall be the public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to give priority attention to the environmental restoration of the Martín Peña Canal and to rehabilitate and revitalize the communities along its north and south banks in order to promote a healthy relationship between the natural environment and its surrounding city and communities, with a vision of integrated development based on community empowerment. The vision set forth by the communities surrounding the Martín Peña Canal of having “a united, safe and prosperous community, a model of self-managerial coexistence in the heart of San Juan” is hereby adopted.
This project designated as the Martín Peña Canal ENLACE Project has the following purposes:
Environmental. — To enable the rehabilitation of the San Juan Bay Estuary, improve the quality of its waters and the habitat of its fauna and wildlife by broadening and dredging of the Martín Peña Canal and a conservation strip along both banks thereof.
Socio-economic. — To improve the living conditions of the approximately thirty thousand (30,000) residents of the eight communities located along both sides of the Canal in the areas of public sanitation, housing, ordinance and quality of the urban spaces and the infrastructure. To achieve a healthy and enriching relationship between the communities of the sector and their urban surroundings, the recovery of the potential for tourism, recreation and education of the Canal, and the participation of the current residents in the new employment opportunities, development of businesses, and the increase in land value that shall be created through the rehabilitation and reform of the area.
Institutional. — To promote civic and democratic development through the active participation of the residents in the planning and rehabilitation processes of the area.
It shall be the public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to promote the on-site rehabilitation and revitalization of the eight communities that constitute the District and the Cantera Peninsula and to foster an integrated community development spearheaded by the members of the communities themselves. It shall also be the policy of the Government to harmonize the components of the ENLACE Project through the full participation of all the residents of the District in coordination with the G-8.
The intervention model fostered by this Government is based on the following principles:
(1) Community self-management and empowerment whereby the resident is the core of the planning, renewal and development activities.
(2) The alliance between the communities, the public and private nonprofit sectors, and the private entrepreneurial sector assuming the various responsibilities in order to foster development.
(3) An integrated approach directed toward the poverty problem which fosters the processes for community economic development and the development of the community social capital needed to forge a better quality of life, along with the processes for physical and environmental rehabilitation.
(4) To watch over and promote a culture of conservation, sensitivity and respect toward the Martín Peña Canal ecological resource, as a component of a highly important natural resource, to wit, the San Juan Bay Estuary.
(5) To maximize the possibilities of relocating within the District itself those residents who must be relocated and who wish to remain in the District, as a result of the implementation of the ENLACE Project. This includes, but is not limited to, the identification and protection by the residents and the Government of all available land and space in order to make possible the relocation of residents affected by the dredging of the Canal and the works of infrastructure within the communities themselves.
(6) To ensure that the economic opportunities generated by the public investments in the District lead to more community empowerment and the improvement of the economic situation and quality of life of the residents therein.
(7) To make certain that the interventions of the Corporation, public agencies and private businesses are directed toward maintaining and strengthening community cohesion and that they do not propitiate, directly or indirectly, the elimination of the communities that constitute the District.
(8) To foster the development of the community’s social capital wherewithal, including the provision for continued training of community leaders and the establishment of collaboration and union ties among the communities that constitute the District and the Cantera Peninsula through community organization.
(9) To capitalize on the potential of the investment of public funds for the creation of job sources and entrepreneurial activities among District residents.
(10) The long term minimization of involuntary community displacement.
(11) To provide for resident participation in the economic development and the increase in land value that shall arise from public and private investments in the District.
(12) To promote the integration of the communities into the urban, economic and social development of the San Juan Metropolitan Area.
With the application of these principles to the intervention processes, we shall achieve, in a joint effort, the rehabilitation of the Martín Peña Canal and the revitalization of its surrounding communities, social justice and economic development for the residents of these communities and society in general and the achievement of the Martín Peña Canal ENLACE Project’s fundamental and interrelated goals.
History —Sept. 24, 2004, No. 489, § 3.