Faced with dozens of measures before the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly that would overhaul the permitting system and weaken environmental protections — including a sweeping permitting reform that Gov. Jenniffer González Colón introduced — environmental and civic groups say they have been unable to analyze the proposals, organize or educate people about their potential impact.

“What we’re seeing is unprecedented,” said Héctor Varela Vélez, a spokesperson and community organizer for Surfrider in Puerto Rico. “It places an enormous burden on organizations and communities that defend the public interest.”

Although the public debate has centered on the governor’s Planning and Permitting Code, known as Administration Bill 114, the Puerto Rico House and Senate are also holding parallel hearings on two other bills: House Bill 25, introduced by Carlos “Johnny” Méndez, which would redefine public domain property; and Senate Bill 1173, introduced by Thomas Rivera Schatz, which would consolidate the permitting process. Twelve other bills that would amend or repeal the current permitting law are also moving through the Legislature.

The Puerto Rico House and Senate received a letter in late May in which more than 60 organizations requested additional time to thoroughly study and testify about the permitting reform, which would upend environmental protections across Puerto Rico. The groups also called for an educational campaign on radio, television, social media and in print, as well as in-person and virtual hearings in other municipalities because of the measure’s far-reaching impact.

The Puerto Rico Legislature has not extended the public hearing schedule, the coalition told Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. The Senate will accept comments and recommendations through June 5.

According to the University of Puerto Rico’s Resiliency Law Center, 67 bills with environmental implications had been introduced in the House by late April of this year. Four have already become law: Act 1-2025, which eliminated interim renewable energy targets from the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act; Act 47-2025, which postponed implementation of the law prohibiting the sale and use of single-use plastics; Act 103-2025, which regulates the sale and use of tires; and Act 2-2026, which created the Child Safety Seat Collection, Reuse and Recycling Program.

The Senate, meanwhile, has introduced 26 bills, two of which the governor has already signed: Act 92-2025, which added hydrogen-based technologies to the definition of alternative renewable energy; and Act 111-2025, which established that if a government entity fails to issue recommendations within the deadlines set for a permitting process, it will be deemed to have no objections to the proposed project and its recommendations will not be binding.

Other proposals include the Archipelago-Wide Boundary Demarcation Act, the Coastal Adaptation and Boundary Demarcation Act in Response to the Climate Crisis and the Environmental Standing Act. The measures would allow the boundaries of coastal public domain property to be formally demarcated, redefine the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone using scientific criteria and grant any person full statutory standing to enforce environmental public policy.

Nearly 20 bills introduced in the House and Senate would affect regulatory requirements for issuing permits, including construction and use permits. Some would limit challenges to strategic projects and standardize planning and zoning criteria. Four have already become law.

Last month, the governor signed House Bill 310, introduced by Rep. Jorge Navarro Suárez, which requires a bond of at least 10% of the value of any proposed project when a party seeks an order halting it. Although Navarro proposed amending the bill following public backlash on social media and in the news media, the House speaker refused to allow the amendment to move forward.

“On the one hand, bills are being advanced that seek to limit protections for public domain property and the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone,” Varela Vélez said. “On the other, there are proposals that restrict access to the courts to challenge bills that we believe violate public policy and the Puerto Rico Constitution.”

Varela Vélez said he was concerned about efforts to accelerate permitting and construction without strengthening planning tools such as the Land Use Plan.

If the Planning and Permitting Code is approved, a new Planning and Urbanism Board would replace the Puerto Rico Planning Board and have the power to amend, replace or repeal the Land Use Plan, which provides guidance on how land should be developed sustainably. The bill also establishes that the Land Use Plan would be subject to the Comprehensive Economic Development Plan, a new economic growth plan that the Department of Economic Development and Commerce would develop and that would be approved by the executive and legislative branches.

“The Comprehensive Economic Development Plan shall have an indefinite term and remain in effect until it is revised, amended or replaced,” the proposed law states.

The Planning and Permitting Code would also make it harder for residents to challenge site consultations and permits. Under the bill, people who are not parties to a proceeding before the Permits Management Office, known as OGPe by its Spanish initials, would face a higher bar to participate as intervenors based on their interest in the dispute, said Verónica González Rodríguez, an environmental attorney with Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico.

“The current and longstanding standard has consistently required a legitimate interest in the proceeding to seek intervention. As the Puerto Rico Supreme Court has held, including in Fundación Surfrider v. Administración de Reglamentos y Permisos, a legitimate interest is not the same as standing. It is a broader and more flexible standard precisely because agencies are not courts,” González Rodríguez explained.

The proposed law, she said, “defines an intervenor using criteria that courts have established for standing: actual and palpable harm and a causal connection to the administrative action. In other words, this new definition makes the requirements for participating in an administrative proceeding equivalent to those in a judicial proceeding.”

Organizations that signed the letter to the Legislature requesting additional time to participate in the hearings or submit testimony included Amigxs del M.A.R., the UPR Environmental Law Clinic, El Puente Puerto Rico, Sierra Club de Puerto Rico, Ciudadanos del Karso, Para la Naturaleza, the Puerto Rico League of Cities, the UPR Sea Grant Program, Surfrider Foundation Rincón, Sociedad Ambiente Marino, Puerto Rico Clinicians for Climate Action, Red Comunitaria de Agua, the Resiliency Law Center, Salvemos a Playuela, Yo Amo El Tinglar and Murciélagos Beach Defenders.

“House Bill 1213 [the Planning and Permitting Code] is 819 pages long; amends and repeals dozens of laws; eliminates agencies; alters the powers of others; strips powers from municipalities; and concentrates authority in a single agency. The Senate has also publicly acknowledged that […] it creates a new legal and administrative framework for permitting, planning, the environment, historic zones, archaeological resources, regulations and administrative and judicial review processes,” the coalition’s news release said.

Raúl Torres Matos, a spokesperson for Campamento Erizo in Luquillo, which is fighting the closure of public access points to Las Picúas Beach, said the Planning and Permitting Code would open the door to the indiscriminate issuance of permits to developers and investors.

“There will no longer be any way to fight for and defend the public domain area within the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone,” he warned.

Torres Matos said he was troubled that “future generations will think no one fought for the beaches.”

“I worry that the public will not be able to enjoy something that belongs to the public,” he said.

Hernaliz Vázquez Torres, director of Sierra Club Puerto Rico, said her organization is one of the few that has read the Planning and Permitting Code in full.

“It took me two weeks to read the bill, and every morning I spend 10 minutes on it and find things I did not see the first time, things that require further analysis or fall outside my expertise — and I am an environmental and public policy planner,” Vázquez Torres said. “Having two weeks to read the bill while public hearings are being held during those same two weeks is not enough because by the time you analyze it and break it down, the hearings are already over.”

The organization submitted written testimony to the Puerto Rico Legislature on the bill, but Vázquez Torres said public hearings open to residents had been limited and the deadlines for submitting written statements on the legislation had been shortened.

Communities Also Battle Megaprojects

In addition to fighting bills such as the Planning and Permitting Code and the Permitting Simplification Act, communities have organized against construction in ecologically valuable areas that are home to endangered species and near natural coastal barriers such as coral reefs, mangroves, wetlands, beaches and sand dunes. Examples include the Esencia project in Cabo Rojo, Isabela Reefs in Isabela and the Paseo Lineal in Rincón, as well as other environmental controversies, including pollution in San Juan’s Condado Lagoon.

“It is not humanly possible,” academic and activist Beatriz Llenín Figueroa said, referring to the efforts by the Coalición Defiende a Cabo Rojo to respond to measures that would also fast-track tourism-related residential developments such as Esencia.

Llenín Figueroa said the coalition has had to prioritize some bills over others. For those measures, its members have organized educational campaigns on social media, circulated news releases and spoken with the news media. She added that they have mobilized against the bills, collected signatures and sent letters to the governor and the Legislature that have gone unanswered.

“Our organizations carry out most of their work on a volunteer basis, juggling everything at the expense of our health while also maintaining our respective jobs and other life and family commitments in an island where conditions continue to deteriorate,” Llenín Figueroa said.

“It’s clear to us that we’re in the midst of a shock strategy designed to distract people with partisan squabbling while the most sweeping and catastrophic reordering of land use across Puerto Rico is pushed through for the benefit of a handful of wealthy and powerful interests,” she said.

The Planning and Permitting Code reflects the ideological position of the current administration, said Carola Acum Quiñones, a spokesperson for Paseo Responsable, a coalition that has fought the construction of the Paseo Lineal in Rincón.

Paseo Responsable submitted nine pages of written testimony outlining its concerns about the Planning and Permitting Code.

“It places enormous pressure on communities and gives developers and investors free rein,” Acum Quiñones said.

She emphasized the importance of reforming Puerto Rico’s permitting system to make it more workable for small-business owners but said that should not come at the expense of natural resources. The environmental activist said the bill weakens protections when it should strengthen them.

The proposed code would amend 29 laws and eliminate 14 others.

Contradictory Public Policy

Gabriel Meléndez Cardona, environmental public policy coordinator for El Puente Puerto Rico, said that while the pending measures would roll back decades of environmental protections, the concrete solutions contained in the Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Plan have gone unaddressed.

“The recent assault, whether directly through the elimination of protections and changes in public policy or through the redefinition of terms and reclassification of land, has required greater organization and collaboration among organizations to confront the array of orders, amendments, declarations and bills,” he said.

“El Puente has focused on organizing through coalitions and broader fronts to increase pressure and expand the reach of its awareness and mobilization efforts,” Meléndez Cardona added. “Since the beginning of this four-year term, El Puente’s public policy team has had to devote substantial effort to monitoring and denouncing these measures, participating in public hearings, submitting comments on bills and educating and mobilizing residents.”

Meléndez Cardona said groups like his must defend natural resources and hold the government accountable because the state has shut the public out of policymaking.

“In this case, the bills and public policy changes are coming from both the local and federal governments. At both levels, all three branches of government are controlled by a single party,” the attorney said. “This has made it more difficult for the checks and balances among the three branches to function properly, markedly affecting the level of discussion and debate, as well as public participation when legislation is considered.

“However, there appears to be greater public awareness of the importance of the environment and Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to climate change. That has made the proposed measures unpopular, hence the abuses of power, lack of transparency and violent rhetoric so common among politicians these days.”

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.