2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 2 - Uniform Signs and Advertisment Act of Puerto Rico of 1999 (§§ 51 — 56g) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 51 — 51l) › § 51 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated below, except when it is otherwise construed from its text:
(a) Advertisement. — Shall mean any sign, electronic board, writing, printed matter, painting, symbol, drawing, picture or any other type of graphic communication whose purpose is to attract attention to [a] commercial or other advertisement or to attract attention to [a] product, article, business or recreational service; or to attract attention to a campaign, activity, idea or message of government, political, religious, charitable, artistic, sports or of other nature, that is offered, sold or carried out with the intention that it is seen from a public highway.
In the cases that the installation of an billboard requires the erection of a frame of any material, or of electrical apparatus and others, as well as other accessories, it shall be deemed that they all are an integral part thereof and shall be considered as a unit for all legal purposes.
(b) ARPE. — The Regulations and Permit Administration of Puerto Rico, created pursuant to the provisions of Act Number 76 of June 24, 1975, as amended, known as the “Regulations and Permits Administration Organic Act”.
(c) Marketing center or shopping center. — Any development planned for the establishment of commercial facilities including two (2) or more main uses in one (1) building for the retail sale, at a great scale, of consumer and home goods, and the establishment of those uses so allowed by Planning Regulation 4 in a District C-4, including, at least, one (1) department store that serves two (2) communities or more with a minimum population of forty thousand (40,000) persons, and with an minimum sales area of twenty-five thousand (25,000) square feet. As part of the project, all necessary urbanization works are constructed for the operation of the center.
(d) Committee. — The Advisory Committee for the Sign and Advertisement Industry of Puerto Rico created pursuant to this chapter.
(e) Banner. — A temporary sign installed with ropes so it is suspended in mid-air, made of cloth or any other flexible material and not enclosed in a frame.
(f) Provisional extension. — The main general projection area of an advertisement that shall not exceed a specific size of the advertisement, as provided for in § 53 of this title.
(g) Sign or advertisement clearance. — The minimum vertical distance from the ground level to the lower part of the sign or advertisement, including the frame and its decorative elements that extend upon the ground.
(h) Sign or advertisement maintenance. — To clean, paint or repair a sign or advertisement, or to replace any damaged part without altering its size, design, structure or location.
(i) Registration sticker. — The document issued by ARPE that shall be adhered to the sign or advertisement, which evidences the authorization for its installation pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(j) Provisional registration sticker. — The document issued by ARPE, that shall be adhered to the sign or advertisement, which evidences the authorization for its installation for a maximum term of fifteen (15) months, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(k) Park of intense active recreation. — Recreational facilities where sports activities and recreational events on any kind regularly take place to which a great number of people attend, free of charge or not.
(l) Permit. — The authorization to install a sign or advertisement, which is issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(m) Provisional registration sticker. — The authorization to use a sign or advertisement granted to all non-conforming signs or advertisements, for a period not longer than fifteen (15) months after the approval of this act, which is issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(n) Person. — Any business, corporation, association, special partnership, individual or any other natural or juridical person.
(ñ) Sign operator. — The person to whom a license has been issued to engage in the business of manufacturing, installing and removing of signs and advertisements pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(o) Non-conforming sign or advertisement. — The condition or use of a sign or advertisement in violation to the provisions of this chapter.
(p) Sign or advertisement with a permit pursuant to the previous regulations. — The condition or use of a sign or advertisement in violation to the provisions of this chapter, but that legally existed as such at the effective date of this act, for what it may remain installed providing that the permit be renewed pursuant to the provisions of §§ 54 and 54a of this title, within a period of sixty (60) days after an effective date.
(q) Sign. — Shall mean any sign, electronic board, lettering, printed matter, painting, emblem, drawing, illustration, or any type of graphic communication whose purpose is to direct attention to a commercial activity, business, institution, service, recreation or profession offered, sold or performed on the lot or premises where it is located, in order to be seen from a public highway, excluding from its coverage those graphic communications commonly used at points of sale, such as plastic boards, posters, racks and other similar ones. In the cases that the installation of the sign requires the building of a frame of any material, installation of electric and other accessories, it shall be understood that they all are an integral part thereof, and shall be deemed as a unit for all legal purposes.
(r) Public road right of way. — The strip of land attained with the purpose of constructing, widening, etc., a public road, including all of its necessary components or elements, or for any other improvement or convenient measure for the same.
(s) Public roads. — Trails, pathways, alleys, side roads, sidewalks, minor roads, streets, thoroughfares, viaducts, bridges, avenues, boulevards, highways, and any other access ways or part thereof, which are operated, conserved or maintained for the use of the general public by the state or municipal government, including those that form part of the National Highway System road network.
(t) Billboard. — Is a frame to advertise different products or services that has its own structure, of any material, and whose advertising area is more than twenty-five (25) square feet on each side.
History —Dec. 22, 1999, No. 355, § 4; Sept. 2, 2000, No. 336, § 1.