a. Sidewalk (Acera): Strip of land within the right-of-way, extending from the property line to the outer line of the curb and gutter (cordón y caño), and reserved for pedestrian traffic.
b. Activity (Actividad): According to Executive Decree Number 31849-MINAE-SALUD-MOPT-MAG-MEIC, defined as the set of operations or tasks characteristic of a person or entity. It may involve actions of diverse scope, such as economic, social, planning, and education activities.
c. Adaptation: Modification of a building, monument, site, ensemble, or historic center to use it for purposes compatible with its cultural value.
d. Industrial Activity (Actividad Industrial): That activity carried out in an uncovered or covered establishment intended for the transformation, handling, or use of natural products or for the elaboration, handling, transformation, or use of artificial products through physical, chemical, or biological treatment, manually or by means of machines or instruments. Establishments where activities dedicated to the food industry are developed are included.
e. Principal Activity (Actividad principal): Activity that constitutes the core of the actions carried out in an establishment, and which generates the highest productivity, in relation to other complementary or accessory activities that a permit holder develops within the same establishment and does not depend on any of the other activities.
f. Ecological Agriculture: According to the Organic Environmental Law No. 7554, ecological agriculture shall be understood as that which employs methods and systems compatible with protection and ecological improvement without using inputs or products of chemical synthesis. Organic or biological agriculture are synonyms for ecological agriculture.
g. Agroforestry (Agroforestería): Also defined as an agroforestry system by the Forest Law (Ley Forestal) No. 7575, it is the way of using land that involves the combination of forest species in time and space with agronomic species, in pursuit of the sustainability of the system.
h. Agrotourism (Agroturismo): Specialized segment of tourism in which rural culture and knowledge of agro-industrial techniques are economically utilized to generate tourist activities, such that the tourist is attracted by cultivated landscapes and activities directly linked to agriculture and livestock farming in general. It comprises not only such activities but also the facilities linked to them such as stables, warehouses, granaries, ponds, training arenas (picaderos), silos.
i. Wastewater (Aguas Residuales): Those that have received a use and whose quality has been modified by the incorporation of contaminating agents.
j. Storm Sewer (Alcantarillado Pluvial): According to Executive Decree No. 33601-MINAE-S, it is the public network of pipes used to collect and transport rainwater to its discharge point.
k. Sanitary Sewer (Alcantarillado Sanitario): According to Executive Decree No. 33601-MINAE-S, it is the public network of pipes used to collect and transport wastewater (aguas residuales) to its treatment and discharge point.
l. Setback (Alineamiento): Minimum distance or physical limit for the placement of a building with respect to public roads, waterways (vías fluviales), streams (arroyos), springs (manantiales), lakes, lagoons, estuaries (esteros), springs (nacientes), maritime terrestrial zone, railways, high-voltage power lines, special zones issued by the competent entity.
m. Road Setback (Alineamiento Vial): Line fixed by the Municipality of La Unión (in the case of properties facing or adjoining streets or roads of the cantonal road network); by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) (in the case of properties facing or adjoining streets or roads of the national road network), or by the Costa Rican Institute of Railways (in the case of properties facing or adjoining the railway right-of-way) as the maximum limit or proximity for placing a construction, with respect to the public road.
n. Maximum Height (Altura Máxima): Maximum elevation value for structures and/or buildings established by the Regulatory Plan for each of the use zones in which construction is permitted, expressed for each zone in meters and in maximum number of floors.
o. Building Height (Altura de Edificación): Vertical distance measured from the minimum ground level in contact with the building to the crown beam of the top level. Basements and semi-basements are not considered as part of this calculation.
Front Yard (Antejardín): Distance between the property lines and the building lines, the former of cadastral origin and the latter of official definition, granted by the MOPT or the Municipality; as applicable, it implies a restriction on building, without the portion of land thereby losing its condition as private property.
p. Parking Space (Aparcamiento): Space intended for vehicle parking.
q. Minimum Lot Area (Área Mínima de Lote): Minimum size of a property expressed in square meters or hectares.
r. Urban Area (Área Urbana): It is the territorial scope of development of a population center.
s. Previously Urbanized Area (Área Previamente Urbanizada): Area that has been subject to subdivision (fraccionamiento) and development for urban purposes, through the opening of streets and provision of services.
t. Cabin (Cabina): In accordance with Executive Decree 32592-MP, it is the establishment that provides lodging service for a daily rate, forming a homogeneous group of at least seven housing units, each with a private bathroom, one or more bedrooms, living-dining room, and kitchen, generally located at the beach, rivers, lakes, and mountains.
u. Public Street or Public Road (Calle Pública o Vía Pública): Any land of public domain and common use, which by provision of the administrative authority is intended for free transit in accordance with planning laws and regulations and which is, in fact, already intended for that public use. According to their class, public roads shall also be intended to ensure the aeration and lighting conditions of the buildings that border them; to facilitate access to adjoining properties; for the installation of any channeling, device, apparatus, or accessory belonging to a public work or intended for a public service. For the purposes of this Regulatory Plan, public streets or roads are all those indicated as such on the land use zoning map, the official map, and the road map.
v. Roadway (Calzada): Part of the street or public road intended for vehicular traffic, comprised between curbs (cordones), ditches, or drainage trenches.
w. Land-Use Certificate (Certificado de Uso del Suelo): Official document issued by the Urban Development and Control Directorate (Dirección de Desarrollo y Control Urbano) of the Municipality of La Unión which establishes whether the existing, requested, or proposed use on a property conforms or not to the zoning established in the Regulatory Plan, for which purposes the Zoning Map, the Official Map, and the Endorsed Cadastral Plan of the property in question, as well as the alignments established by the competent institutions, are used as indispensable instruments.
x. Classification of industrial establishments according to risk: the industrial, commercial, and service establishments defined in these regulations are classified according to their sanitary and environmental risk into three categories:
Group A (High Risk): Are those establishments that, due to the characteristics of the activities they carry out, may present a high sanitary and environmental risk, which could potentially affect the integrity of persons and the environment.
Group B (Moderate Risk): Are those establishments that, due to the characteristics of the activities they carry out, may present a moderate sanitary and environmental risk, such that potentially the integrity of persons and the environment would not be exposed to significant damage.
Group C (Low Risk): Are those establishments that, due to the characteristics of the activities they carry out, present a low sanitary and environmental risk, such that the integrity of persons and the environment potentially are not affected.
y. Coverage (Cobertura): It is the horizontal projection of a structure or the area of land covered by such a structure. It includes any type of work that generates coverage and soil impermeabilization, such as roofed areas, civil works, structures, parking areas, roadways and internal roads, among others.
z. Condominium (Condominio): Property susceptible to independent exploitation by different owners, with common elements of an indivisible nature, whose different modalities are defined in the Law Regulating Condominium Property (Ley Reguladora de la Propiedad en Condominio), Law No. 7933, its Regulation, Executive Decree No. 32303-MIVAH-MEIC-TUR, its amendments, or the regulations that replace it.
aa. Construction (Construcción): The art of building any structure that is fixed or incorporated into a piece of land; it includes works of building, reconstruction, alteration, or expansion that imply permanence.
ab. Urban Quadrant (Cuadrante urbano): System of cities in a grid form where the majority of goods and services, the road structure, and its immediate area of influence are found.
ac. Right-of-Way (Derecho de vía): That area or surface of land, owned by the State, destined for the use of a public road, which includes the roadway, green zones, and sidewalks, with adjacent zones used for all complementary installations and works. This area is delimited on both sides by the boundaries of the adjoining properties at their property line.
ad. Drainage (Drenaje): Structure that is placed or built to dispose of and evacuate surface waters.
ae. Industrial and Storage Establishment (Establecimiento industrial y de almacenamiento): Those premises, covered or uncovered, destined for the manipulation, transformation, or utilization of natural or artificial products, by means of physical, chemical, or biological treatment, whether by manual means or by the application of machinery or instruments. Also included under this denomination are sites destined to receive or store work tools and materials to be treated or that are in the process of elaboration, or their products; in addition, all annexes of factories or workshops and warehouses.
af. Communal Facilities (Facilidades Comunales): Or community equipment, are the services offered in a community to maintain a quality of life and social interaction characteristic of its culture. Some are offered by the State or the Municipality, such as schools, security services, health services, childcare centers, recreation areas, and cemeteries; others are provided by private agents such as pre-school education, private schools, rented recreation centers.
ag. Subdivision (Fraccionamiento): It is the division of any parcel for the purpose of selling, transferring, negotiating, distributing, exploiting, or using the resulting plots separately; it includes both partitions by judicial or extrajudicial adjudication, locations of undivided rights, and mere segregations held by the same owner, as well as those located in urbanizations or new constructions that concern the control of the formation and urban use of real property.
ah. Greater Metropolitan Area (Gran Área Metropolitana, GAM): Area of urbanistic control established in the Regional Urban Development Plan, published in Gazette 119 of June 22, 1982; amended by Executive Decree No. 25902-MIVAH-MP-MINAE; and by Executive Decree No. 38145-PLAN-MINAE-MIVAH-MOPT-S-MAG.
ai. Habitable (Habitable): Building that meets the minimum conditions of safety, hygiene, and comfort.
aj. Zone Limit (Límite de Zona): It is the line that frames and defines a zone and that shall be demarcated on the zoning map.
ak. Building Line (Línea de construcción): A line generally parallel to the property front line, which indicates the distance of the front setback (retiro frontal) of the building or required front garden (antejardín). It demarcates the building limit allowed within the property.
al. Property Line (Línea de propiedad): That which demarcates the limits of a particular property.
am. Official Map (Mapa Oficial): It is the plan or set of plans in which the position of the layouts of public roads and areas to reserve for communal uses and services is accurately indicated.
an. Reference Level (Nivel de Referencia): It is the level of the point located at the intersection of the street axis with its perpendicular passing through the center of the lot frontage. Reference level is the zero level for the purposes of setting building heights or basement depth.
ao. Foundation Level (Nivel de Desplante): It is the level of the bottom of the lowest or deepest slab of a construction.
ap. Civil Work (Obra Civil): Work designed and constructed by means of the applied sciences and technology pertaining to civil engineering.
aq. Floor (Piso): In a building, a level platform that serves as a floor and to support furniture. The first floor is the one that is at ground level; a one-story building is one with a single level. A floor is known as the set of rooms limited by determined horizontal planes in a multi-story building.
ar. Horizontal Property (Propiedad Horizontal): That type of building in which the person is the exclusive owner of a floor, apartment, or building and co-owner of the assets assigned to common use.
as. Urban Renewal (Renovación Urbana): It is the improvement process aimed at eradicating slum zones or informal settlements and rehabilitating urban areas in decay or in a defective state, the conservation of urban areas, and the prevention of their deterioration; it also includes processes of relocating settlements affected by potential natural or anthropic threats.
at. Urbanistic Requirements (Requisitos Urbanísticos): They are the conditions set for a lot so that it can be subdivided, such as minimum size, minimum surface area or capacity, and minimum dimension or frontage width facing the street. Such conditions are established in the urban control regulations of the Regulatory Plan and, complementarily, in the current Subdivisions and Urbanizations Regulation (Reglamento de Fraccionamientos y Urbanizaciones) and the Constructions Regulation.
au. Front Setback (Retiro Frontal): Term equivalent to Front Garden (Antejardín).
av. Side Setback (Retiro Lateral): Non-buildable open space comprised between the side boundary of the property and the nearest part of the building.
aw. Rear Setback (Retiro Posterior): Non-buildable open space comprised between the rear boundary of the property and the nearest part of the building.
ax. Services (Servicios): Set of activities that seek to respond to the needs of a client. Services include a diversity of activities carried out by a large number of officials who work for the state (public services) or for private companies (private services); among these can be noted the services of: electricity, potable water, sanitation, telephone, telegraph, mail, transport, education, cybercafés, health, and social assistance.
ay. Public Services (Servicios Públicos): Are those services that allow the needs of the population to be met, such as lighting, potable water, cleaning, health, telephone, and transport, administered by the State or by private companies.
az. Wastewater Treatment System (Sistema de Tratamiento de Aguas Residuales): According to Executive Decree No. 33601-MINAE-S, it is the set of physical, chemical, or biological processes whose purpose is to improve the quality of the wastewater to which they are applied.
ba. Housing Unit (Unidad habitacional): Unit of measurement in which density is determined, abbreviated as hu/ha (housing units per hectare); and which is constituted as a structure for residential use no smaller than 30m² and in which at least one room is destined for a kitchen, another for a bathroom, and another for a bedroom, all of which comply with the minimum construction guidelines that nationwide regulations provide for such purpose.
bb. Urbanization (Urbanización): It is the subdivision and habilitation of land for urban purposes, through the opening of streets and provision of services.
bc. Land Use (Uso de la Tierra): It is the utilization of a piece of land, of the physical structure settled or incorporated onto it, or of both cases in terms of class, form, or intensity of its exploitation.
bd. Permitted Use (Uso Permitido): It is the destination or utilization that a land or building has authorized, in accordance with the regulations of the Regulatory Plan.
be. Non-Conforming Use (Uso No Conforme): The non-conforming use is one that does not conform to the indicated zoning but that existed de facto on the date a Regulatory Plan came into effect and, therefore, can be continued under the principle of non-retroactivity of the law, but with limitations.
bf. Prohibited Uses (Usos Prohibidos): Are all those uses that are not expressly permitted by the Zoning Regulation of the Regulatory Plan in the different use zones.
bg. Dwelling (Vivienda): It is any enclosed space or enclosure, fixed or mobile, built, converted, or arranged, that is used for the purpose of housing persons, permanently or temporarily.
bh. Multifamily Dwelling (Vivienda Multifamiliar): It is the building conceived as an architectural unit with independent habitable areas, suitable for sheltering two or more families.
bi. Single-Family Dwelling (Vivienda Unifamiliar): It is the building provided with habitable areas destined to shelter a single family.
bj. Zones (Zonas): They are territorial circumscriptions defined in the Regulatory Plan which are subject to specific regulation regarding the use that can be given in them and regarding the urbanistic and construction requirements imposed on the buildings that exist in them or that are proposed to be built.
bk. Aquifer Recharge Zone (Zona de Recarga Acuífera): Surfaces in which infiltration occurs that feeds the aquifers and river channels, according to the delimitation established by the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía) on its own initiative or at the request of interested organizations, after consultation with the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados), the National Service of Groundwater, Irrigation, and Drainage (Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas, Riego y Avenamiento), or another entity technically competent in water matters.
bl. Zoning (Zonificación): It is the division of a territorial circumscription into use zones.
APPLICATION OF THE REGULATORY PLAN