Opinion ID: 583574
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Residential Complex

Text: 11 While Sucesores' application for the waste disposal permits was pending, Cerame Vivas filed an application for another permit, this one a site permit to construct a tourist residential complex in Boqueron, a community approximately 30 miles to the west of Ponce. The complex was to consist of eight condominium units in three buildings. Cerame Vivas filed the site permit application on September 28, 1988, and it was denied about a week later, without notice or a hearing. The PRPB stated that it had denied the permit because of an excessively high [population] density and because the project did not adjust to the conventional yard parameters [i.e., setback regulations] and a variation therefrom was not justified. 12 Cerame Vivas then moved for reconsideration and proposed altering the project to conform to the setback regulations, but stuck to the original population density. The PRPB affirmed its denial of the permit on December 7, 1988, without making any findings of fact or conclusions of law. 13 Cerame Vivas sought and obtained judicial review in the Puerto Rico Superior Court, which ordered the PRPB to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. The PRPB issued a resolution on March 13, 1989 reaffirming its denial of the permits on the ground that the sewer facilities in the area were not sufficient to accommodate the project. The question of sewer facilities had not arisen during the earlier administrative proceedings. The Superior Court denied Cerame Vivas's petition for judicial review and for reconsideration. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court also denied a petition for review of the Superior Court's action and two requests for reconsideration. 14 According to Cerame Vivas, permits for similar projects in the area were routinely granted.