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) › § 4608 - Community Boards

During the process of drafting a territorial plan and before public hearings are held to consider the completed territorial plan document, the municipality shall create one or several Community Boards pursuant to the provisions of this section. Each Board shall be constituted by not less than seven (7) members nor more than eleven (11). None of these may be an official who holds an elective public office, or a person who introduces development projects to the municipality or has direct or indirect economic interests in such projects. Neither can those persons who have been contracted by the municipality to render professional or consulting services or to construct, improve or reconstruct, alter, extend or repair public works, nor the directors, officials, partners, representatives, agents or employees of the above mentioned contractors, be members of a Community Board.
The mayor shall appoint the members of the Community Board for a term of two (2) or three (3) years, keeping not less than one-third (1/3) of the members during any change in the constitution of the Board. The Community Board shall be appointed according to the procedures provided in this section for the appointment of municipal employees. Members shall hold office during the term of their appointments or until their successors take office. Said Boards shall be the representative bodies of the various ideological, social, and economic sectors of the community in which they are constituted. To that end, the municipality shall not discriminate based on race, color, sex, birth, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin or social condition, nor for political or religious belief when appointing or confirming the members of the Community Boards.
A minimum of one Community Board shall be appointed for every fifty thousand (50,000) inhabitants or fraction thereof. The following criteria shall be taken into consideration within the territorial boundaries of the area covered by a Community Board: the natural or artificial barriers of a community, the spatial continuity, the contiguity and compatibility of the area in relation to the uses and nature thereof.
The majority of the members of each of the Community Boards whose creation is directed by virtue of this section shall be residents of the geographic area they represent; the rest may be business people who do business or professionals or workers who render services in the area.
The duties of the Community Boards shall be to advise the municipality in the drafting and review of, and compliance with, the ordinance plans and the ordinance regulations and plans within a specific geographic area. They shall also oversee the implementation of, and compliance with, said documents including the execution of the powers on territorial ordinance that have been transferred to the municipality pursuant to this chapter, as well as promote citizen participation in said procedures and report their recommendations to the municipality.
The Community Boards shall refer to the Regulations and Permits Administration those cases related to complaints and violations of the planning laws and regulations whose handling remains under the jurisdiction of said Administration. They shall furthermore give the proper follow-up to said public agency to promote the effective implementation of the above mentioned laws and regulations in their particular geographic areas.
Each year the members of every Community Board shall elect a Board of Directors that shall direct its work and shall at least consist of a President, a Vice-president and a Secretary. The aforementioned Boards shall meet when necessary or required to exercise their functions, or at least once every two (2) months, and shall keep minutes of their meetings. Said minutes shall constitute public documents and shall be maintained and preserved in an adequate and orderly manner.
Each Community Board shall approve those by-laws that are necessary for its operations. For the purpose of its meetings a majority of the members of each of said Boards shall constitute a quorum and all its agreements shall be reached by a majority thereof.
The municipality, through the Territorial Ordinance Office, shall provide the technical support required by the Community Boards for the proper compliance of its duties. The municipal government shall establish in its annual budget the appropriations that are needed for the operation of said Boards.
The territorial boundaries corresponding to each Community Board may be modified by the municipality for just cause and after public hearings are held to that effect. After each population census, the municipality shall adjust the area boundaries as may be necessary, not later than one year after the date of receipt of the final and official numbers for each census.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.010; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 67; May 29, 2013, No. 22, § 11.