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) › § 4606 - Drafting, adoption and review

The ordinance plans shall be drafted or reviewed by the municipalities in close coordination with the Planning Board and with other public agencies concerned to ensure their compatibility with state and regional plans and those of other municipalities. The municipalities may enter into agreements with the Planning Board for the drafting of said plans or parts thereof.
As an indispensable instrument for the evaluation of the ordinance plans that are submitted to the consideration of the Planning Board, the public agencies concerned shall continually update and make available to said agency a physical inventory which shall include, among others, the location of the natural resources that should be protected, the use of the land, areas susceptible to natural risks, zones of agricultural, historical, archeological or tourist value, as well as a list of the infrastructure available.
Any municipality which decides to develop or entirely review an ordinance plan should notify this fact to the Planning Board before beginning its work. When a municipality notifies the Planning Board of its intention to draft or entirely review a territorial plan, or to draft or entirely review an ordinance plan which has a significant impact on another municipality, the Planning Board shall determine, through a resolution to that effect, the set of factors that shall be considered in the plan, which may include but not be limited to, the following: minimum densities to be required for the use of the land, urban morphology, transportation systems, regional infrastructure systems, regional landfills, dams and the general interrelationship with its region.
Two (2) or more municipalities may agree on the drafting of joint ordinance plans, through an agreement to that effect, with the previous authorization of the corresponding Municipal Legislatures and the endorsement of the Planning Board. Said Board shall take care that the territory covered by said plan be reasonably contiguous, that the municipalities have similar characteristics, that the objectives and requirements set forth in this chapter are met and that other municipalities are not adversely affected. The Planning Board shall approve, through resolution, those complementary provisions that are needed to govern the form and content of the ordinance plans that are drafted jointly by two (2) or more municipalities.
The drafting or review of the ordinance plans shall be developed by stages and through the sequential and concurrent preparation of a series of documents. It shall follow an intense process of citizen participation through public hearings pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. It shall also comply with what is established in §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3, known as the “Uniform Administrative Procedures Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”. The municipality shall hold mandatory public hearings in the cases listed hereinbelow.
During the drafting or entire review of the territorial plan, public hearings shall be required for the evaluation of the following documents:
(a) Statement of objectives and work plan;
(b) general report;
(c) advance of the territorial plan, and
(d) territorial plan (complete).
In the drafting or entire review of the extension plan, public hearings shall be required regarding the following documents:
(a) Statement of objectives and work plan; and extension program;
(b) proposal of the extension design plan and the ordinance regulations; and
(c) extension plan (complete).
In the drafting or entire review of the area plan, public hearings shall be required to analyze the following documents:
(a) Statement of objectives and work plan;
(b) inventory, diagnosis and recommendations, program and proposal of the plan, and
(c) area plan (complete).
The municipality shall notify the Planning Board of all the public hearings and shall send it a copy of the documents to be presented at them. The Planning Board shall remit its comments to the municipality on the documents received within a term not greater than sixty (60) days after their receipt.
In order for the ordinance plans to become effective, they shall require the approval of the Municipal Legislature, their adoption by the Planning Board and the approval of the Governor. In the case of ordinance plans which include more than one municipality, these shall be approved by the Municipal Legislatures of each of the municipalities concerned. If the Planning Board does not consider a plan adequate, it shall state, through a resolution, the grounds for its determination. If an agreement for adoption is not produced by the Planning Board, the plan shall be submitted to the Governor stating the position assumed by the Planning Board and the municipality; the Governor shall take the corresponding final action.
The ordinance plans shall be reviewed within the term determined therein or when the circumstances so merit. The territorial plan shall be reviewed in its entirety at least every eight (8) years.
The ordinance plans may be reviewed partially. The partial review of the ordinance plans shall require that public hearings be held in the corresponding municipality, the approval of the Municipal Legislature through an ordinance, its adoption by the Planning Board and ratification by the Governor, regarding the following elements of an ordinance plan; in the case of plans adopted jointly by more than one municipality, each plan shall require a public hearing and the approval of the Municipal Legislature:
(a) Territorial plan.—
(1) Documents regarding the policies of the plan included in the general report;
(2) The following design plans included in the program:
(i) Infrastructure,
(ii) road plan,
(iii) general communal uses;
(3) The section of the investment projects program, certified by the public agencies;
(4) Land classification design plan;
(5) ordinance design plans (except those amendments to the design plans pursuant what is established in § 4610 of this title), and
(6) ordinance regulations.
(b) Extension plan.—
(1) Extension plan;
(2) ordinance design plans (except those amendments to the design plans pursuant what is established in § 4610 of this title), and
(3) ordinance regulations.
(c) Area plan.—
(1) Ordinance design plans (except those amendments to the design plans pursuant what is established in § 4610 of this title), and
(2) ordinance regulations.
The review of the ordinance plans as to other matters, including those amendments to the ordinance design plans pursuant to the provisions of § 4610 of this title, shall only require that public hearings be held in the corresponding municipality and in the case of those plans adopted jointly by more than one municipality, in each of them, and require as well the approval of the Municipal Legislature or Legislatures through an ordinance and a notice of the review approved to the Planning Board. Said review shall be effective forty-five (45) days after the notice to the Planning Board, as evinced by the corresponding acknowledgment of receipt. During that period the Board may determine whether the partial review is contrary to the policies of the plan or whether it has an impact beyond the municipal boundaries, reasons for which the Board may not accept the partial review. In that case the Board shall issue said determination through resolution and a notice of the aforesaid to the municipality.
The Planning Board may determine, through resolution, that the partial review requested by the municipality requires a thorough review of the Ordinance Plan in its totality; this determination must be duly explained.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.008; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 65; Dec. 30, 1998, No. 331, § 1.