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) › § 4609 - Conformity and compatibility

The ordinance plans shall be in conformity with all the public policies, laws, regulations or other documents of the central government related to territorial ordinance and construction, except for those regulations which are substituted or amended according to the following indications.
At the time of drafting or revising the ordinance plans, a municipality may, regarding those matters under its jurisdiction, propose substitutions or amendments to the regulations or to other documents of the Planning Board or the Permit Management Office, except for the Building Regulations, the Floodable Zones Regulations, the Historic Zones or Sites Regulations, the Coastal Zone, Beaches and Coast Access Zoning Regulations and other regulations or documents adopted specifically for regional or general application in Puerto Rico.
In matters within its jurisdiction, the municipality shall coordinate with other public agencies a process directed to harmonizing its plans in the municipal area with the plans and programs of said agencies in a manner that is mutually satisfactory. The public agencies shall be bound to respond with a reasonably speedy process taking into consideration, to the extent possible, the concerns and interests set forth by the municipality.
The municipality shall make sure to keep a close liaison and collaboration with the planning in all that concerns the drafting and adoption of the ordinance plans. It shall also establish the necessary coordination with other public agencies, especially those related to transportation, infrastructure, natural resources, agriculture and industrial development. The Planning Board shall see to the compatibility between what is proposed and other ordinance plans and other public policies relevant to the matters included in the plan under consideration and may allow criteria that are stricter but not more lax than those established in the public policy documents of general application in Puerto Rico. The ordinance plan adopted shall be the end result of the consultation and coordination efforts between the public agencies and the municipality.
Once approved by the Governor, the Ordinance Plan shall bind the public agencies to comply with the works and projects programs included in the Investments Projects Program Section agreed on with the public agencies. The Planning Board shall give priority consideration to said section in the drafting of its Four Year Investments Program provided in §§ 62 et seq. of Title 23, as shall the Management and Budget Office in the Annual Budget to be submitted to the Legislature [of Puerto Rico]. Public corporations shall be bound by their own budgets.
Once an ordinance plan has been adopted, the central government shall reserve the power, through the Planning Board, to adopt determinations of application for one or several municipalities addressed to propitiating better health and the safety and welfare of the region or addressed to the consideration and approval of central government works and projects. During the process of considering these determinations the affected municipalities shall be notified and heard. These determinations shall be accomplished and notified to the Territorial Ordinance Office and to the Permits Office of the municipality through a resolution of the Planning Board and the same shall prevail over any ordinance plan. If these determinations are not compatible with the ordinance plans, the latter shall be revised to harmonize them within a term not to exceed one year from the date on which the Planning Board adopted the resolution. Any determination on the use of the land by a municipality shall respect what has been established in the Planning Board resolution even though at the time of its application the ordinance plans have not yet been revised. These determinations of the Planning Board shall no apply to the projects included in the section of the investment projects program certified by the public agencies.
The ordinance plans and all the regulations adopted and actions undertaken by the municipalities pursuant to the powers conferred upon them by this chapter, shall comply with the provisions of Act No. 9 of June 18, 1970, known as the “Environment Public Policy Act”, and with the regulations approved by the Environmental Quality Board for the implementation of said act.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.011; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 68; Sept. 7, 2004, No. 258, § 34.