2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 225 - Territorial Ordinance (§§ 4601 — 4627) › § 4611 - Office of Territorial Ordinance; Permits Office; and bylaws—Creation

Prior to or during the drafting of an Ordinance Plan the municipality shall create an Office of Territorial Ordinance, whose functions, among others, shall be the following:
(a) To prepare and review Ordinance Plans, and carry out all the necessary activities for the effective execution of these processes.
(b) To hold public hearings relative to the Ordinance Plans and carry out all the activities incidental to the latter.
(c) Supervise the development of and compliance with the ordinance plans.
(d) Compile and update information, and keep files related to the territorial ordinance of the municipality.
(e) Provide technical advisory support to the Community Boards so that they may properly perform their duties.
The Office of Territorial Ordinance shall be directed by a Director appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Municipal Legislature. Said Director shall be a professional with expertise in territorial ordinance matters. The municipality shall revise its administrative organization in order to locate said offices and coordinate their operations with other existing or future planning offices.
Prior to receiving the transfer of powers from the Planning Board or from the Regulations and Permits Administration, the municipality shall create a Permits Office whose functions shall be the following, among others:
(a) Process petitions for authorizations and permits pursuant to the powers transferred to the municipality under an agreement.
(b) Keep a file on each petition for authorization and permits, as well as the decision made to such respects.
(c) Hold public hearings related to the procedure for granting authorization or permits and carry out all activities pertinent to these.
(d) Promote the filing of legal actions, whether administrative or judicial, to process violations or complaints related to the powers transferred to the municipality under an agreement.
In any case, every use permit shall be issued to the property (in rem); thus, a change of owner shall not require a new permit insofar as the use remains the same, and shall be registered in the municipality upon such novation. The new user shall pay the municipal license fee corresponding to such use permit.
The Permits Office shall be directed by a Permits Official, who shall be an architect or engineer licensed under the standards of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Such official shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Municipal Legislature. Prior to making a discretionary decision regarding a power that has been transferred the Permits Official shall require that a Permits Committee be created. The Permits Committee shall be constituted by three (3) members, one of whom shall be the Director of the Office of Territorial Ordinance. The two (2) remaining members shall be professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering or surveying; both shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Municipal Legislature. These two (2) members may be full or part-time employees of the Permits Office of the municipality, or may be volunteers. The Permits Committee shall evaluate the various authorizations or permits that require variations in the construction, in the installation of billboards and notices, exceptions or determinations of use or legally nonconforming structures and shall issue its written recommendation to the Permits Official who shall decide whether to approve or disapprove said action.
The municipality shall establish the appropriations needed for the operation of the Office of Territorial Ordinance and the Permits Office in its annual budget.
Two (2) or more contiguous municipalities, as the case may be, may constitute a consortium in the manner provided in this subtitle to establish an Office of Territorial Ordinance with the same director or a Permits Office with the same Permits Official, or both, to provide common services. The distribution of costs for the maintenance and operation of these offices shall be prorated between the participating municipalities as provided by the agreement. In the case of offices in consortium, the mayors of the municipalities concerned shall appoint the Director or Official of these Offices and the Permits Committee. These appointments shall be subject to the confirmation of a majority of the total members of the Municipal Legislatures of the municipalities which constitute the consortium.
The Legislatures may hold public hearings and special joint sessions to consider and evaluate said appointments. The joint sessions shall be agreed to by the Presidents of the Legislatures of the municipalities in consortium and shall neither be considered as regular or as special sessions. They shall be convened under the signatures of the Presidents of the Legislatures concerned regarding the date, time and place agreed by them and concerning the duration of the special joint session authorized herein; its other procedures and formalities shall be governed by the provisions which apply to the regular sessions of the Municipal Legislatures and shall be considered as such regarding the payment of per diems to Municipal Legislators.
The municipality or municipalities, as the case may be, shall adopt two sets of regulations, through ordinance, to govern the substantive and procedural provisions of both Offices. The regulations of the Office of Territorial Ordinance shall establish the provisions for the operations and procedures of the Office and shall be in effect within or before the six (6) months after the Office has been created and a Director has been appointed. The regulations of the Permits Office must be adopted before the powers concerning territorial ordinance have been transferred.
In order to comply with the requirement to adopt the regulations for the Office of Territorial Ordinance and the Permits Office, the municipality may adopt, through ordinance, the regulations of those agencies whose powers have been transferred without the need for holding public hearings or it may, by previously holding a public hearing, adopt new regulations.
The municipality shall revise its administrative organization in order to locate said offices and coordinate their operations with other existing or future planning offices.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.013; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 70; July 12, 2011, No. 121, § 2.