P.R. Laws tit. 23, § 43
The Permit Management Office is hereby empowered and directed to adopt and amend, as hereinafter established, regulations which shall govern the safety, stability and health and sanitation conditions, energy conservation and efficiency, conditions which favor the access to and use of solar radiation, and the comfort of every building that is constructed, reconstructed, extended or altered in Puerto Rico. These regulations shall include:
(a) Technical provisions on construction material and design of structures; fire safety and evacuation facilities, including the creation of fire protection zones; sanitary, plumbing, electrical, mechanical and air conditioning works; energy conservation and efficiency, and such other provisions that are deemed necessary to promote and safeguard the common safety and welfare.
(b) Special provisions regarding buildings for the public use as well as all other provisions that are deemed necessary to best promote, ensure and safeguard the common comfort and welfare.
(c) Those provisions of an administrative nature dealing with the procedures for permits, inspection and construction of works, the payment of excise taxes or fees and other administrative aspects.
Provided, That the term “building” for the purposes of §§ 43—50 of this title includes any facilities and structures to be permanently or temporarily occupied by persons, animals or property, such as houses, multifamily housing projects, temples, offices, theaters, warehouses, factories, quarantine stations, schools, hospitals, stores, bleachers, refrigerating plants or any other works of a similar or different nature.
Provided, further, That the power hereby vested in the Permit Management Office on this matter includes the power to restrict and prohibit.
Six (6) months after the effective date of this act, the Building Regulations must include standards for the design, construction and reconstruction of buildings, which will ensure easy and convenient access to physically disabled persons. A “physically disabled person” shall be understood to be that person who has a temporary or permanent disability or a condition which causes said person to walk with difficulty or insecurity, or to use a wheelchair, or which affects his sight or hearing in such a way that it impairs his safety or exposes him to danger, or causes him difficulty in coordination or reduces his mobility, flexibility, coordination or perception. These standards shall be applicable to the following categories of buildings:
(A) Housing buildings (used for sleeping):
(1) Public housing buildings
(2) multistory housing buildings and hotels
(3) urbanizations.
(B) Commercial:
(1) Used for offices
(2) stores, restaurants and shopping centers.
(C) Schools and other educational facilities, public as well as private.
(D) Meeting places:
Coliseums, parks and recreation centers with bleachers, theaters, movie houses, lounges, dance halls, skating rinks, and other similar places.
(E) Airport, warehouse and garage buildings.
(F) Health and social welfare facilities and any other places where services are rendered to the citizens.
(G) Industrial plants.
(H) Any other category that the Permit Management Office deems necessary to create to comply with the purposes of this section.
These standards shall be mandatory for all new construction or the reconstruction of the above-mentioned buildings and facilities. The addition of a wing to a building, and any reconstruction that in any twelve- (12) month period exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the value of the building on that date, as determined by the Permit Management Office, shall be deemed to be a new construction. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the authentic restoration or reconstruction of buildings designated by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture as historical.
History —May 4, 1949, No. 168, p. 530, § 1; July 18, 1975, No. 10, p. 591, § 2; Feb. 23, 1978, No. 2, p. 12; July 26, 1979, No. 192, p. 540, § 2.