P.R. Laws tit. 23, § 62m
The Planning Board shall prepare and adopt Land-Use Plans and may adopt those prepared by the government bodies and/or entities it may designate. The Planning Board shall advise, coordinate and assist these bodies and entities in the preparation of the methodology to be used in the formulation of these Land-Use Plans so that in physical and environmental terms they be consistent with the Puerto Rico Development policies and strategies adopted by the Board in the Integral Development Plan. The Land-Use Plans, depending on whether they are regional, urban, rural, or municipal, or depending on their geographical scope, shall designate the distribution, location, extension and intensity of the land uses for urban, rural, agricultural, mining, or forestry purposes, for conservation and protection of natural resources, recreation, transportation and communications, power generation, and for residential, commercial, industrial, educational, public and institutional activities. There shall exist a close relationship between the designation of these land uses and the availability and programming of all the physical and social infrastructure, including the transportation and communication systems. The Land-Use Plans, as well as the availability and programming of the physical and social infrastructure, shall be the basis for the preparation and revision of the zoning maps.
Every work or project to be performed by any person or entity shall be consistent with the recommendations of the Land-Use Plans, once they are adopted by the Planning Board and approved by the Governor. Copies of the Land-Use Plans shall be submitted to the Legislature by the Governor immediately upon approval. The Legislature shall have at least 45 days, reckoning from the date they are filed in the Office of the Secretary of each Legislative Body whether in regular or special session, during which it may state its disagreement with any element of the plans through a concurrent resolution to that effect. Said action shall stay the portion so objected to by the Legislature.
In order to guarantee the best use of the land in Puerto Rico and to insure the implementation of the Land-Use Plans, the Board shall prepare a land budget which shall consist of estimates of the quantity and location of the land demanded, by both the public and the private sector, as well as of a priority system and a set of criteria to be used in the process of deciding the quantity and location of the land to be devoted to specific uses during a period of time. Said period of time shall be determined by the Board, after surveys to that effect.
In the process of preparing this land budget, the Board shall promote the preparation of:
(1) Continuous inventories of the lands and other natural resources of Puerto Rico as well as of their physical, geological and environmental characteristics and of the uses to which they are devoted; and
(2) projections on the prices of land, and
(3) surveys on the nature, quantity and compatibility of the land needed to meet the present and future social and economic needs of the Puerto Rican community.
The determination of the system of priorities in the use of the lands and of the preparation of the budget thereof shall take into consideration the developed, subdeveloped and unused areas as well as the facilities of existing and programmed physical and social infrastructure. All the government bodies shall furnish such precise information as the Board may request in connection with the preparation of the land budget so that the Board may comply with the provisions herein. The Board shall adopt the necessary measures to obtain the maximum use of the land where needed and that it be put to the maximum utilization.
History —June 24, 1975, No. 75, p. 183, § 14, eff. July 1, 1975.