Read the code (ConPermiso)Track in SUTRA

In public hearings

Código de Planificación y Permisos

A-114 · P. de la C. 1213 · P. del S. 1183 · Filed April 8, 2026

There's an 819-page bill in the House of Representatives that probably hasn't reached your timeline, but it will decide whether your community finds out when someone builds next to your house, whether a developer needs your input before tearing down a business to put up a hotel, and whether you have any legal recourse when that happens without anyone telling you. It runs in parallel through both legislative chambers, and as of this writing it's still in public hearings.

819

pages in the bill

10%

minimum bond to challenge a permit

Apr 8, 2026

filed

Five pieces, one pattern

Takes permits out of the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act

Article 1.06 literally says Act 38-2017 (LPAU) “shall not apply, directly or as a supplement” to the procedures this Code creates. LPAU is the law that today requires public hearings, notice to affected parties, and lets you challenge administrative decisions under a known standard. The Code builds its own parallel system, with its own Adjudicative Board and its own Administrative Review Board, designed and controlled entirely by the Code itself.

Turns certification into self-certification

Instead of an agency (DRNA, the Fire Bureau, Environmental Health) evaluating your project before approving it, an “Accredited Professional” hired and paid by the developer certifies that the project complies. Control shifts from before to after: no one reviews before it's built, it's only audited (maybe) afterward.

Narrows who can formally object

To take part at all, you first have to file a written request to intervene (a solicitud de intervención). And Article 1.07(92) sets a high bar for who even qualifies as an “Intervenor”: you must prove an interest that is your own, direct, and substantial, distinct from the general public interest, plus a reasonable causal link to a concrete harm. Caring about your community isn't enough. You have to show it affects you specifically, in a way an adjudicator will accept as sufficient.

Puts a price on the right to complain

Act 82-2026 (signed in May 2026, a companion piece to this Code) requires that any request to suspend the work, whether in court or administratively, post a bond of at least 10% of the project's value, and it says that requirement takes precedence over any other. If the project is worth $10 million, you need $1 million to stop it. That isn't a bureaucratic hurdle. It's an economic filter, and the Puerto Rico Bar Association rejected it as a barrier to accessing the courts.

Reserves the fast lane for big money

The “Strategic Project” designation (which has existed since 2017 and which the administration activated in 2025 by executive order) applies to “large-scale” projects or ones of “pressing interest” for economic development. There's no equivalent category for “this matters a lot to this community” if it doesn't move enough capital. The more money your project moves, the faster and with fewer eyes on it that it's processed.

The question worth asking

Who gets the last technical word?

What does a professional paid by the developer know about the soil variation of your coastline, compared to a DRNA geologist who has no economic interest in the project being approved? This isn't a rhetorical question. It's literally the institutional design the Code proposes: moving the last technical word from a specialized, neutral agency toward whoever has a direct incentive to say yes.

This isn't hypothetical. We've seen it.

Isabela Reefs

A condo-hotel in a dune zone and specially protected rustic land in Isabela, stalled since 2023 because DRNA objected over flood and erosion risk. Under a self-certification system, that specialized objection stops being a mandatory obstacle.

El Paseo Lineal, Rincón

Officially the Paseo Peatonal y Ciclista de Rincón, it only stopped because, in June 2026, an Aguadilla court voided its environmental clearance (a categorical-exclusion determination) for a certification that didn't reflect reality: the permit had been processed with no public hearing, using a 1998 maritime-zone demarcation that didn't reflect the real coastline. Amigos de Tres Palmas won a halt that protected the Tres Palmas Marine Reserve. It's exactly the kind of process this Code makes easier, and exactly the kind of judicial recourse the 10% bond makes harder for the next community.

La Laguna del Condado

It has spent years receiving wastewater discharges despite a federal consent decree with the EPA. Proof that the problem isn't always a lack of new permits, but a lack of enforcement of what already exists, something an after-the-fact control system doesn't necessarily fix.

Status

The bill is still in progress, in public hearings. That means written testimony, hearings, and organized pressure can still move specific pieces, as already happened with the reference to Act 75 of Río Piedras, which the House Speaker himself said he was willing to remove under public pressure.

Timeline

Apr 8, 2026Filed in the House and Senate (A-114 / P. de la C. 1213 / P. del S. 1183)

Apr 9, 2026First reading; referred to the House Special Commission and the Senate committees

Apr 21, 2026First public hearing in the Senate

May 12, 2026Governor signs Act 82-2026, the companion law requiring a 10% bond to suspend a project, in court or administratively

May 13, 2026Public hearing before the House Special Commission, where DDEC defends the measure

Organizations already on this

Sierra Club de Puerto RicoACLU de Puerto RicoCentro de Periodismo InvestigativoAmigos de Tres Palmas (Rincón)

What you can still do

The bill is still moving. Written testimony, hearings, and organized pressure can still change specific pieces.

1
Read the full text
It's available on the ConPermiso portal and at docs.pr.gov.
2
Submit written testimony
To the House Special Commission handling P. de la C. 1213, or to the corresponding Senate committees.
3
Join the organizations
Sierra Club PR, ACLU-PR, the Center for Investigative Journalism, and community coalitions like Amigos de Tres Palmas in Rincón.
4
Talk about it with your people
Most people in Puerto Rico don't know this bill exists. That silence is, quite literally, part of how these processes advance without resistance.