Maritime Zone
Land
The Maritime Terrestrial Zone is a Public Domain asset
The maritime-terrestrial zone is one of the public domain assets found on the coasts. The Docks and Ports Law of 1968 defines the maritime-terrestrial zone as: “the space of the coasts of Puerto Rico that is bathed by the sea in its ebb and flow, where the tides are noticeable, and the largest waves in storms where the tides are not noticeable.” According to this law, the maritime-terrestrial zone includes lands reclaimed from the sea and the margins of rivers to the extent that they are navigable or where the tides become noticeable.
Like all public property for public use, the maritime-terrestrial zone belongs to all people. These assets are not and cannot be private; they cannot be sold, bought, seized or confiscated.
How is the Maritime Terrestrial Zone identified?
The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) is the agency responsible for conserving and monitoring the maritime-terrestrial zone. Among its functions, the DRNA is the only entity authorized to establish the point up to which public property extends. This is done through a process called demarcation. Regulation 4860 of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico regulates matters related to demarcation.
What happens to the lands that border the Maritime Terrestrial Zone?
Land bordering the maritime-terrestrial zone may be private. However, the Docks and Ports Act imposes two burdens or easements on these private lands.
An easement is a right that one property has over another. In this case, easements consist of leaving a free strip of land parallel to the maritime-terrestrial zone. The first, the surveillance easement , consists of a strip of land 6 meters wide. The second, the rescue easement , consists of a strip 20 meters wide from the maritime-terrestrial zone, which includes the surveillance easement.
The Planning Board's joint permit regulations require that any proposed building, segregation or land development project must dedicate the first 20 meters to public use. In addition, in the 30 meters after the salvage easement, the regulations establish a buffer zone prohibiting the construction of permanent structures. As a result, there must not be any permanent structures in the first 50 meters inland from the land-based maritime zone.
Can exceptions be made?
The DRNA may allow the use and occupation of the maritime-terrestrial zone and/or easements, but it cannot convert them into private property.
Through the authorization process, the DRNA allows temporary activities that do not include the construction of permanent works in the area. Removable structures can be placed, but not in the surveillance easement. This occurs, for example, for beach festivals where platforms are placed.
If the use is not temporary, the DRNA may authorize a concession , but only for uses that are dependent on water. Water-dependent uses are uses that could not occur anywhere other than the maritime-terrestrial zone and/or its easements, for example the construction and use of docks, piers or fishing villages.
Where does this information come from?
This information arises from Act No. 151 of June 28, 1968 , as amended, known as the Docks and Ports Act.