2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-THREE - Public Planning and Development (§§ 1 — 11273) › PART I - Public Planning (§§ 1 — 229ccc) › Chapter 1A - Planning Board (§§ 62 — 66c) › Subchapter I - Organic Act (§§ 62 — 63j) › § 62w - Local planning

The Board is authorized to create a local planning commission for any municipality, by petition of its mayor, or on its own initiative, when the mayor concerned, upon being requested to do so, does not request it within forty-five (45) days of the requirement, composed of the number of members the Board may determine, who shall all be residents of said municipality. The commissioners shall be appointed and shall hold office in accordance with such regulations as may be adopted by the Board to that effect.
Any local planning commission thus created shall advise the Board and the Permit Management Office, when consulted by them, or on its own initiative, regarding any planning problems in its municipality. The commission shall advise the mayor of the municipality, when consulted by him, regarding any planning or municipal problems.
The local planning commission shall keep the mayor and the municipal legislature duly informed of all the recommendations it makes to the Board and/or the Permit Management Office.
The Board may create regional planning commissions to perform the functions which, by delegation, the Board may entrust to them. Upon creating a regional commission in a particular region, the Board shall determine whether, in view of the special conditions prevailing in said region, the regional commission should operate jointly with the local commissions in the jurisdictional area of the regional commission. If the Board finds that it is not necessary to keep the local commissions in the region or in any municipality included therein, it is authorized to take the necessary steps for the transfer of functions and of everything else that may have to be transferred, upon consultation with the mayors of the municipalities affected.
The Board may delegate to the local and regional planning commissions planning functions such as the adoption of amendments to the zoning maps; Provided, That for such delegations it shall be necessary for the Board to adopt a resolution which shall set forth the guidelines, facts and conditions and any other necessary information, so that the action delegated shall be sufficiently precise and so that the determinations such delegations entail shall be consistent with the policies, standards and regulations established by the Board. Before effecting these delegations, the Board shall take into consideration, for the purpose of insuring the effective performance of these functions, the resources and technical capability of the commissions, the technical advice they may receive from the public bodies, and the geographical and physical characteristics or nature of the region or municipalities. The Board shall establish criteria or standards which will permit it to review these delegations.
The Board shall establish the necessary standards so there may be the closest possible connection and collaboration between the regional commissions, the municipal authorities and the Regulations and Permits Administration, as well as between the regional and the local commissions that may subsist or be created.
History —June 24, 1975, No. 75, p. 183, § 24; June 21, 1977, No. 83, p. 186, § 1; July 13, 1978, No. 49, p. 517, § 2.