2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-THREE - Public Planning and Development (§§ 1 — 11273) › PART II - Economic Development (§§ 231-241 — 695i) › Chapter 24 - Land Administration (§§ 311 — 311s) › § 311f - Duties and powers

The Administration shall have a juridical personality of its own and may exercise such rights and powers as may be necessary or proper for the carrying out of the purposes hereof, including, but not limited to, the following:
(a) To have perpetual succession.
(b) To approve, amend or repeal bylaws.
(c) To appoint all its officials, agents and employees, and to grant and impose on them such powers, faculties, responsibilities, and authority as it may deem proper; to determine their duties; to fix, change and pay such compensation as it may determine, subject to the policy, bylaws, regulations and procedures approved by the Board. All personnel matters of the Administration shall be regulated without subjection to the laws governing the Office of Personnel of the Government of Puerto Rico or to the rules and regulations promulgated by said Office.
(d) To adopt, alter, and use a seal which shall be judicially noticed.
(e) To draft, adopt, amend, and repeal rules and regulations governing the policies of its activities in general, and to exercise and discharge the powers and duties granted to and imposed on it by law. Upon the approval and promulgation of said rules and regulations by the Board, the same shall have the force of law as soon as filed in Spanish and English in the offices of the Secretary of State. Such rules and regulations shall be published in the Bulletin [Register] of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and shall not later than ten (10) days after filed in the office of the Secretary of State, be published in a newspaper of general circulation.
(f) To sue and be sued.
(g) To establish the accounting system required for an adequate control of all expenditures and revenues pertaining to or administered by it, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury.
(h) To have full powers for the carrying out of the public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as herein established.
(i) To make contracts and to execute all instruments necessary or expedient in the exercise of any or all of its powers.
(j) To acquire property in any lawful manner, including, but without limitation, the following: by purchase, option of purchase, purchase by instalments, at public auction, by lease, legacy, devise, assignment, exchange, gift, or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain in the manner provided by this chapter and the laws of Puerto Rico; and to hold, maintain, use and avail itself of, or utilize any real or personal property, including, but not limited to, securities and other movables or any interest therein, deemed by it necessary or desirable to carry out its purposes.
(k) To sell, grant options of sale, sell by instalments, convey, exchange, lease or otherwise dispose of its property in the course of its normal operations, except by gift, which may only be made for the benefit of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its agencies. There shall not be considered as a gift any disposal of property, or of any right or interest therein, which, in fulfillment of the purposes hereof may be effected by the Administration at a lower price than it paid for same, or lower than the value of such property, or right or interest therein, in the market.
(l) To sell or otherwise dispose of any real or personal property which in the judgment of the Administration is no longer necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter, subject to the same limitation imposed thereupon by subsection (k) of this section.
(m) To borrow money, give security and issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes or for the purpose of funding, refunding, paying, or discharging any of its outstanding or assumed bonds or obligations, and to secure payment of its bonds and of any and all other obligations by pledging, mortgaging, or otherwise encumbering all or any of its contracts, revenues, income or property.
(n) To accept in its own behalf, or in behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, financial aid of any nature, including subsidies, gifts, advances and suchlike, from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or its agencies, from the United States Government or its agencies, and from private persons; to enter into contracts, leases, agreements, or other transactions with both or any of such governments or their agencies, and to expend the proceeds of the funds so received for the purposes of this chapter.
(o) To have complete control and supervision of any and all of its property and activities, including the power to determine the character of and necessity for all its expenditures and the manner in which they shall be allowed, incurred, and paid, without regard to the provisions of any laws governing the expenditure of public funds, and such determination shall be final and conclusive upon all officers and employees of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, without prejudice to the provisions of § 311i of this title.
(p) To prescribe by regulation the policies governing all matters with relation to the personnel of the Administration. Such policies shall, insofar as compatible with the efficient effectuation of the purposes of the Administration, be similar to those governing the personnel of the Commonwealth Government.
(q) To acquire, in the manner provided in this chapter, private property and keep it in reserve, for the benefit of the people of Puerto Rico, for the use of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or its agencies. Whenever properties or property rights are condemned for specific purposes of public-work development and social welfare, such purposes shall be carried out within a period of years which shall never exceed fifteen (15), from the date of acquisition. The property so acquired may be assigned or conveyed to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or its agencies, under reasonable terms and conditions.
(r) To enter, after obtaining permission to do so from the owner or holder, or his representative, any land or premises, for the purpose of making surveys, taking measurements, or conducting investigations with regard to the nature, conditions and price of such lands or premises, for the purposes of this chapter. Should the owner or holder, or his representative, refuse to grant permission to enter the property for the above-mentioned purposes, any judge of the Court of First Instance shall, upon presentation to him of an affidavit setting forth the intention of the Administration to enter such lands or premises for the stated purposes, issue an order authorizing any official or officials, or employee or employees of the Administration to enter the property described in the affidavit, for the purposes mentioned in this provision.
(s) To acquire real property, urban or rural, which may be kept in reserve towards facilitating the continuation of the development of public work and social and economic welfare programs which may be under way or which may be undertaken by the Administration itself, by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or its agencies, and by private persons for the benefit of the above-mentioned public entities or of the community, including, but not limited to, housing and industrial development programs, in order to prevent the inflation brought about by speculative practices in the purchase-sale of real estate and to allow for populational growth in an organized and planned manner.
(t) To promote and share in the fitting out of new areas anywhere in Puerto Rico, within the frame of the policies which will insure a better balance with regard to the needs of future communities, aiming, among other things, to preserve the natural values of the lands, beaches, forests, and landscapes; to insure the best conditions of health, safety, comfort, recreational facilities, essential services, and esthetic activities; to preserve historical values, to insure the utilization of lands on the basis of the most reasonable costs in behalf of the welfare of the community. To this end, but not to be construed as a limitation, to develop programs for the acquisition of the necessary lands, and for encouraging all kinds of projects, such as will favor such development, either on its own or through or jointly with agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or of the Government of the United States, or with private entities.
(u) To barter for the purpose of improving the utilization of the lands.
(v) To exercise all necessary powers and rights for developing land rehabilitation projects through drying, draining, filling, irrigating, or any other proper means for increasing land utilization.
(w) To carry out by itself, or through or jointly with agencies of the Commonwealth or of the Government of the United States, or by means of covenants with private persons or entities, programs and works, including housing projects, to insure the most effective development and the fullest utilization, in keeping with the purposes of this chapter, of lands owned by the Administration, or by the Commonwealth or any of its agencies.
(x) To acquire any right or interest or easement in any property in order to: promote the development, utilization and maintenance of open areas in their natural state so as to protect bodies of water; to protect the public from the effects of floods; to preserve soils and forests; to preserve the beauty of places devoted to public use, including green areas and public parks; and to facilitate the use and development of areas which are in reserve for projects of public interest, especially those related to the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants.
(y) To enter into agreements with the Commonwealth and its agencies so as to acquire real property for them; to sell real property owned by them, or intervene in or carry out the development of programs in connection with such property, subject to the laws that fix the official activities of said agencies. To such ends, the parties to these covenants are hereby authorized to make such transfers of funds as may be necessary.
(z) To establish, in disposing of any real property, all such conditions and limitations regarding its use or utilization as it may deem necessary and desirable to insure the fulfillment of the purposes of this chapter, so that the use made of said property will not facilitate or tend to create undesirable conditions, or conditions adverse to the public interest, which this chapter aims to protect. Whenever the Administration sells or otherwise disposes of property for the acquirer to erect thereon housing developments or any other type of project involving a subsequent sale to private persons, it may fix such restrictions as it may deem necessary for the effectuation of the purposes of this chapter. In any event, it shall include one limiting, through a proper formula, the profits to be had by the acquirer with respect to the land and all other costs of the project.
(a-1) To transmit, in perpetuity or for a limited time, to urbanizers, for housing developments, and to other persons for the undertaking of any work having social interest, any right, real or personal, or any interest in the lands that it may hold.
(b-1) To sell, whenever it may deem it necessary and desirable, lands or any interest therein, at such price as it may consider reasonable in order to lower the cost of the houses or to fulfill any of the purposes of this chapter.
History —May 16, 1962, No. 13, p. 11, § 7.