- a)Access: Road onto which a lot or property fronts.
- b)Lodge (Albergue): A type of establishment with comfortable rustic characteristics that provides lodging especially to athletes or groups united by a common interest or activity. There are various modalities, including mountain refuges, fishing lodges or camps, beach lodges, country or youth lodges, whose characteristics and additional services vary according to their specialization, and the most appropriate denomination shall be given based on these.
- c)Maximum height: Established from the ground to the ridge point of the building.
- d)Street furniture (Amueblado): Set of urban elements, such as benches, trash cans, tables, posts, shelters, signs, and labels that support services for user comfort.
- e)Apartment-Hotel (Apartotel): A type of establishment that provides lodging service for a daily or monthly rate, and which has the following characteristics:
1. It may be composed of apartment-type units with one or more bedrooms, a private bathroom, dining room, and kitchen.
2. It must occupy the entirety of a building or an absolutely independent part of it, and its dependencies constitute a homogeneous whole, with entrances for the exclusive use of the establishment.
3. It includes floor service in the rate.
4. It provides parking for guests' vehicles, and 5. In its design, it respects standards that guarantee an adequate relationship with the sustaining natural environment.
- f)Green area: Open, grassed or wooded areas, for public or communal use, intended for recreation and ornamentation.
- g)Floating Hotel (Hotel flotante): A hotel establishment located on a floating installation or on a passenger vessel that is permanently or temporarily immobilized to fulfill these functions.
- h)Bungalow: An establishment that provides lodging service for a daily or monthly rate, with units that are independent, with one or more bedrooms and a private bathroom, dependent on a main entrance, reception, and can provide restaurant, bar, souvenir shop services, etc.
- i)Cabin (Cabina): See "Tourist Dwelling (Vivienda Turística)".
- j)Campgrounds (Campamientos): A type of establishment that provides a rental service, for a daily or monthly rate, of duly delimited and conditioned grounds to facilitate outdoor life, where one spends the night in a tent, habitable trailer, or similar.
- k)Guesthouse (Casa de huéspedes): A type of establishment similar to a boarding house (pensión) that does not offer food service.
- l)Use Certification: Document establishing the possibility of designating a portion of land for the construction of the works covered in this Regulation. Said certificate shall be issued by the Municipality at the request of the interested party.
- m)Concession: Public contract between the Municipality and the concessionaire, granting the latter the right of land use on a lot on the Maritime Terrestrial Zone, specifically in the restricted zone (150 m); it does not include the Public Zone (50 meters in front of the coastal sector).
- n)Concessionaire: Legal or natural person who holds a concession contract on the Maritime Terrestrial Zone.
- o)Condohotel: A lodging operation modality in which the property's ownership is covered by the Horizontal Property Law, No. 3670 of March 22, 1996, or applies principles contained therein, and in which hotel operation is guaranteed through an administration contract with a hotel operating company that assumes the functions corresponding to administrators according to the law and those derived from the hotel nature of the operation. The establishment must be dedicated to lodging service for a minimum of seventy percent of the time per year, and the remaining thirty percent may be used by the condominium owners.
- p)Conservation: In urban planning, it is the action that, according to the provisions of urban development plans, is oriented towards maintaining the ecological balance, the good condition of material works (buildings, monuments, squares, and parks) and, in general, everything that constitutes the historical, cultural, and social heritage of population centers.
- q)Construction: Any structure that is fixed or incorporated to land; it includes any work of edification, reconstruction, remodeling, or expansion that implies permanence.
- r)Net density: Understood as the ratio of inhabitants divided by the total area of occupied land, having previously deducted road surfaces.
- s)Density: Consists of the number of temporary or permanent residents per unit area (in this case, the estimated unit area is the hectare).
- t)Right-of-way: The measurement of the public use zone, taken between the demarcation lines established by the MOPT, the corresponding Municipality, or a regulatory plan.
- u)Edifications: All those works intended for habitation, work, recreation, tourism, etc.
- v)Hotel: A type of establishment with a minimum of twenty rooms, or more according to its corresponding category, that provides lodging service for a daily rate, as well as food service, at the client's choice. There must be functional integration between the lodging service and the complementary services.
It must occupy the entirety of a building or an absolutely independent part of it, with dependencies that constitute a homogeneous whole with entrances, hallways, stairs, and elevators for the exclusive use of the establishment. Its sustainable character indicates an adequate relationship with its surroundings and conservationist solutions for waste disposal, sewage, etc.
- w)Residential Hotel (Hotel residencia): A hotel that does not offer food service.
- x)Infractor: Natural person, legal entity, or any Government dependency that fails to comply with this Zoning Regulation.
- y)Infrastructure: Urban services and installations, such as: roads, drainage, aqueducts, sewage systems, electricity, telephony, and other similar ones.
- z)Lot: A parcel of land of any size, whether given in concession or in private property.
aa) Tourist Motel (Motel turístico): A type of hotel establishment that provides lodging service for a daily rate and has the following characteristics:
1. Offers travelers parking for their vehicles within the same establishment.
2. Is preferably located outside urban centers and in the vicinity of public roads.
3. Has a minimum of five rooms, all with a private bathroom and independent entrance from the outside.
4. The building does not exceed two stories, and the exterior of these is indicated by luminous signs allowing easy reading from the road, both day and night, showing whether there are vacancies or not.
bb) Number of stories: Understood as total stories or total or partial coverage of the floor area (mezzanine counts as a story or floor).
- cc)Coverage (Ocupación): Consists of the percentage of land that may be covered by buildable areas, habitable or not, such as accesses, parking lots, pools, parking areas, and other non-natural covers; internal green areas are considered residual areas not included in the coverage percentage, and must be designated for gardens, lakes, fruit trees, ornamentals, etc.
dd) Boarding House (Pensión): A small type of establishment that is normally family-run, with a minimum capacity of three rooms, and which offers food service on a full board or half board plan, for a single global rate.
ee) Construction permits, permits, and endorsements (visados): The respective Municipality shall not grant permits for the construction, expansion, or remodeling of buildings or urban developments that contravene the zoning or any of the provisions of this regulation. All construction must have its respective plans approved by the competent institution, the ICT, the INVU, and the Municipality. Concurrently, the corresponding tax payment must exist. Similarly, business licenses (patentes) or use permits shall not be granted for any property where the requested use does not conform to the zoning or the regulation. The granting of business licenses must have permission from the Municipality, and these must be granted to current concessionaires who have been granted tourist-recreational-commercial projects and others that merit such a license.
ff) Owner: The person(s), company(ies), or dependency(ies) holding title of ownership over lands adjacent to the Maritime Terrestrial Zone.
gg) Protection: Those areas in which urban works are subject to restrictions.
hh) Forest regime: Set of legal, economic, and technical provisions established by the Forest Law (Ley Forestal) and in regulations, decrees, and resolutions derived from its application that regulates the conservation, protection, and rational use of forests and forest lands.
- ii)Tourist Residence: See "Tourist Dwelling (Vivienda Turística)".
jj) Setbacks (Retiros): Non-built open spaces located between a structure and the boundaries of the respective property.
kk) Timeshare (Tiempo compartido): System or regime through which a person acquires a right of use, enjoyment, or any other right related to the utilization of a vacation dwelling unit, for determined or determinable periods within each year during the term of the respective contract, by payment of a determined price.
- ll)Sustainable Tourist (Turístico sustentable): Land use characterized by maintaining an adequate human-environment-sustainability relationship, both in natural history, adventure, or similar activities, and in the relationship between buildings and the sustaining environment.
mm) Urban Development (Urbanización): The subdivision (fraccionamiento) and habitation of land for urban purposes through the opening of streets and provision of services.
nn) Conditional use (Uso condicional): That which, while not being the most recommendable for the land conditions, does not generate conflict with permitted uses. This use may be assigned to land, upon special authorization from the Municipality, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, and the INVU.
oo) Conflicting use (Uso conflictivo): That which does not conform to the zoning indicated in the Regulatory Plan. Conflicting uses are not permitted under any condition.
pp) Existing conflicting uses or buildings: Any use or building conflicting at the effective date of this regulation may continue with the following limitations:
1. It may not be expanded or remodeled, and only improvements to maintain aesthetics, hygiene, and safety may be made, upon prior authorization of the Municipal Council.
2. Existing conflicting lands or buildings are momentarily subject to expropriation and payment for improvements according to what Law 6043 and its regulation indicate, provided they were built or occupied according to the laws in force before the promulgation of Law 6043 and with the respective permits.
qq) Permitted use (Uso permitido): That use of the property or lot, over which the concessionaire has the possibility to designate their land without further restrictions than those indicated herein, and upon prior processing of the construction permits required by the Municipality.
rr) Use: Utilization, in a private capacity, of areas or properties.
ss) Public road: Spaces intended for vehicle or pedestrian circulation.
tt) Tourist Dwelling (Vivienda turística) (cabin, cottage (cabaña), summer house (casa de verano), etc.). It is a type of establishment that provides lodging services for a daily or monthly rate, with units that are independent, with one or more bedrooms, a private bathroom, kitchen, independent entrance from the outside, and with parking for guests' vehicles.
uu) Single-family dwelling: A building provided with habitable areas intended for the shelter of a single family.
- vv)Zoning: The division of a territory into use zones, for the purposes of its rational development.