For months now, we’ve been awaiting for OGPe to publish the new, updated and best ever!! Reglamento Conjunto, in other words Puerto Rico’s new land use ordinance. Now we’re up to the third iteration of a “Reglamento Conjunto” under Act 161 of 2009, as amended, since 2010. That comes up to one major overhaul of land use ordinance in Puerto Rico every 2.6 years. Surely there are some lucky consultants making some “bueno dinero” out there. But as we know, the third time will be the charm and this time, this RC3.0 will be the one, for realsies.
If our government, and by government we mean all administrations without distinction of political party or colors, would realize that in planning and land use ordinance we should strive for steadiness, steadfastness and discipline instead of constant change and fidgeting, we would not be in the mess we’re in. Every time we tweak with our land use regulations and planning system we add uncertainty. Every time we perform a major overhaul of our land use ordinance, we dump a bucket of cold ice water over our economy. Every time we add more regulations, we add another ballast to our sinking island. But yet the government happily does the same thing continuously and then is dumbfounded as to why our economy is failing. Now, don’t get us wrong, amendments and changes are good, but only when the costs and uncertainty associated with them can be leveraged by proposed results that will have tangible, considerable and positive effects on our economy. So the government should be very cautious when addressing amendments to planning and land use ordinance regulation. Said amendments should only be approved when they’re accompanied with a verifiable study that shows their projected impact over our economy.
Now, the idea of resorting to RC3.0, could be deemed as a very bold action or as an insane proposition, when you take into consideration the state of Puerto Rico’s economy. Independent of the position you might agree with, consensus can be found in the fact that distress is being caused to interested professionals, consultants and investors, by the lack of information and/or a clear timetable as to the publication date of RC3.0.
Sooooo…..what’s going on? The rumor mill initially put the publication date of RC3.0 during June 2018. However, that same rumor mill pushed back the alleged publication date to late July. August has arrived and no news has been heard from Puerto Rico’s Planning Board or its rebellious child OGPe (Oficina de Gerencia de Permiso), as to when RC3.0 will be published. Are we supposed to sit and wait? Not really, its our duty to express our frustration in some manner and let the people in charge of working on RC3.0 know, that their delay and the uncertainty created by it, is costing our island dearly.
Ladies and Gents, if you’re in any way involved in the process of drafting, reviewing, approving and/or publishing RC3.0 and for some very odd reason your’re reading this; first, let us congratulate you on your billing hours, but most importantly we would like to say; Just publish the damn thing already! And if it cannot be published because more revisions are necessary and additional billing hours must be justified, please publish a realistic timetable and stick to it! Our economy depends on it.
If you would like to take a look at the proposed RC 3.0 please visit here.
If you need more information regarding Puerto Rico’s Planning and Zoning Laws and Regulations please visit here.
Need more information? Please contact us we’ll be glad to help.
Published on August 2, 2018.
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