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House commission hears testimony on bill to shorten permit timelines and make late agency recommendations nonbinding
Summary
Lawmakers and agency officials debated Senate Project 81, a proposal to amend Ley 161 (2009) so that agencies’ failure to meet prescribed deadlines would be treated as ‘no objection’ by the Office of Permits (OPE); proponents said the change would speed approvals while planning and environmental officials warned of oversight and staffing risks.
The House Commission on Economic Development continued hearings June 16 on Senate Project 81, a measure that would amend Article 8.4 and Article 19.12 of Ley 161 de 2009 (the law that enacted Puerto Rico’s permit reform) and modify an inciso of Ley 23 (the organic law of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, DRNA) to require that if an agency or municipality does not issue recommendations to the Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OPE) inside statutory deadlines, those agencies’ recommendations will be treated as absent and “will not be binding” on the final permit decision.
The change is intended to shorten administrative delay and make permit determinations “based on the totality of the administrative record,” a Department of Economic Development (DIDEC) attorney told the commission. Bianca Rivera Román, representing the department, said DIDEC and the OPE support the bill’s aim to “desregulación, simplificación y modernización” of the permitting process but recommended giving OPE discretion to grant additional time to agencies or municipalities that…
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