Nearly 100 planners and scientists have petitioned all members of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives to hold public hearings on the Substitute of the Substitute bill (PSS) for Senate Bills 1173 and 1183, which would create a Planning and Permits Code. Governor Jenniffer González recently submitted the PSS, altering the measure the Senate approved on October 13, which itself was changed during the Senate vote.
The latest version reportedly runs 1,250 pages, according to unofficial information, compared with the 819-page bill (P. de la C. 1213) first filed in April. Neither the Senate nor the House has allowed public comments or hearings on it. The House has until the current legislative session ends to approve the PSS; otherwise it would be taken up in the next session starting in January 2027.
The House has also not posted the governor’s version in the Legislature’s digital tracking system. Signers include geologist Pedro Gelabert, a former Natural and Environmental Resources secretary under Pedro Rosselló and Environmental Quality Board president under Carlos Romero Barceló; planner Félix Aponte, a former Planning Board associate member under Sila Calderón; ecologist Ariel Lugo; botanist Susan Silander; and biologist Miguel Canals.
Their letter says the Legislature has given continuous participation and privileged access to only a few organizations, notably the Puerto Rico Construction Association, and asks for equal treatment of other professional groups. The petition comes during November, designated Planning Month in Puerto Rico by a law approved in July.