As part of the evaluation of bills to reform the permitting system, the Municipality of San Juan requested this Thursday that municipalities be exempted from paying the 10% bond, as provided for in the recently approved Law 82-2026, when they are the ones requesting to halt works due to apparent violations.

The payment was not only imposed by Act 82-2026, but is consigned in Article 15.10 of Senate Bill (PS) 1183, the proposal of Governor Jenniffer González Colón to establish a new Planning and Permits Code, pointed out Gladys Maldonado Rodríguez, director of the Permits Office of the Capital City.

"We understand that the bond requirement may be burdensome. Therefore, we recommend reevaluating this provision and expressly providing that the payment of bail shall not apply to municipalities when they are the plaintiffs", Maldonado Rodríguez stated, during a public hearing where the PS 1173, by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz.

Law 82-2026 provides that, in order to file judicial or administrative actions for apparent violations in construction works, communities and individuals must prove “imminent damage”. Any request for a stay must also be accompanied by the payment of a bond of not less than 10% of the value of the proposed project.

As for the administration’s proposal to reform the permit system, Maldonado Rodriguez stated that it “squanders” the opportunity to delegate to municipalities powers to oversee, sanction and suspend privileges to licensed professionals who do not adhere to laws and regulations.

The municipal administration also rejected the “express or tacit” repeal of the Special Law for the Rehabilitation of Río Piedras (Law 75-1975), the Special Law for the Rehabilitation of Santurce (Law 148-1988), the Regulations for the Special Zoning of Condado, as well as the sectorial plans for the historic zone of Miramar and Sagrado Corazón, and the comprehensive development plans for the Cantera Peninsula and Caño Martín Peña.

On the other hand, he expressed concern that mechanisms such as institutional and audit metrics to identify or correct systemic flaws may be established -as provided for in PS 1183- since the performance criteria may not be “adapted” to municipal complexity.

Nor do they favor that the Uniform Administrative Procedure Law (Law 38-2017), a statute that, according to Maldonado Rodríguez, provides certainty to regulatory and adjudicative procedures, should not apply to permit processes. As for Chapter XV on Fiscalization, the Municipality of San Juan suggested its “reconceptualization.”

"The proposed scheme is extremely confusing, bureaucratic, burdensome and has the effect of dissuading citizens from filing meritorious complaints. Clear provisions are recommended regarding whether autonomous municipalities with hierarchy can investigate and adjudicate complaints (as they do today)," the municipal official stated.

As established by the entities that group the municipalities, the mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, rejected -in the presentation- amendments and repeals of laws that disrupt core areas of municipal autonomy and territorial planning. “It is not only a matter of streamlining processes, but of ensuring that municipalities retain the real capacity to plan, oversee and direct the development of their communities,” he said.

In that line, the Municipality of Bayamón, in a paper signed by the city administrator, Héctor Albertorio Blondet, said that placing in the hands of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) the approval of land management plans - instead of the governor of the day through executive orders - is a “degradation.”

“From what I have heard and what I have seen, the mood of the Legislative Assembly is not in that direction, to take away the authority of the municipal governments,” said the Senate president.

Emanuel Gómez Velez, director of the Planning Office of the Municipality of Bayamón and who presented the paper, recommended reevaluating whether the proposed modifications to the current planning and land use structure generate a real benefit in contrast to “strengthening and optimizing” the existing mechanisms.

He suggested that it is also a good opportunity to “regulate” the figure of managers, through the creation of an official registry and the requirement of continuing education.

“We support the measure, but, certainly, we understand that there are some recommendations,” Gomez Velez said, referring to the administration measure, to questions from the alternate spokesman of the New Progressive Party (NPP) in the Senate, Juan Oscar Morales, who indicated - as a premise of his question - that Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz, “at the beginning,” supported the bill.

“There are some things that should be improved to maintain municipal autonomy,” the official said.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.