- a)Access road (Acceso): Road onto which a plot of land (solar) or property faces.
- b)Lodge (Albergue): Establishment of rustic, comfortable characteristics, which provides lodging service, especially to athletes or groups united by a common interest or activity. There are various modalities whose characteristics and additional services vary according to their specialization, and based on these, they will be given the most appropriate denomination.
- c)Maximum height (Altura máxima): 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, signs, and plaques that support services, for user comfort.
- e)Apart-hotel (Apartotel): Establishment that provides lodging service for a daily or monthly rate and has the following characteristics:
1. It is constituted by apartment-type units, each with one or more bedrooms, private bathroom, living-dining room, and kitchen.
2. It occupies the entirety of a building or a completely independent part thereof, and its dependencies constitute a homogeneous whole, with entrances for the exclusive use of the establishment.
3. The rate includes housekeeping service (servicio de pisos).
4. It has parking for the guests' vehicles.
- f)Green Area (Área Verde): Free areas, grassed or wooded, for public, communal use, destined for recreation and ornamentation of the community.
- g)Barrier (Barrera): Element that serves as a separation between lots (lotes), patios, or gardens on properties.
- h)Cabin (Cabina): Establishment that provides lodging service for a daily or monthly rate, with units that are independent, with one or more bedrooms, private bathroom, kitchen, independent entrance from the outside, and with parking for guests' vehicles.
- i)Campsites (Campamentos): Establishment that provides a rental service, for a daily or monthly rate, of duly delimited and conditioned lands to facilitate outdoor life, where one spends the night in a tent, habitable trailer, or similar.
- j)Guest house (Casa de huéspedes): Establishment similar to a boarding house (pensión), but which does not offer food service.
- k)Use certification (Certificación de uso): Document establishing the possibility of allocating a portion of land for the construction of the works covered in these Regulations. Said certificate will be issued by the Municipality of Puntarenas at the request of the interested party.
- l)Concession (Concesión): Public contract between the Municipality of Puntarenas and the concessionaire, which grants the latter the right to use the land on a lot (lote) within the Zona Marítimo Terrestre.
- m)Concessionaire (Concesionario): Legal or natural person who holds a concession right in the Zona Marítimo Terrestre.
- n)Condohotel (Condohotel): Hotel establishment in which the property of the real estate is covered by the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, No. 3670 of March 22, 1966, and in which hotel operations are guaranteed through a management contract with a hotel operating company that assumes the functions corresponding to administrators according to the law and those derived from the hotel character.
- o)Conservation (Conservación): In urban planning, it is the action that, according to what is provided in Urban Development Plans, is oriented towards maintaining the ecological balance, the good condition of material works (buildings, monuments, plazas, and parks), and in general, everything that constitutes the historical, cultural, and social heritage of population centers.
- p)Construction (Construcción): Any structure that is fixed or incorporated into land; it includes any work of building (edificación), reconstruction, remodeling, or expansion that implies permanence.
- q)Density (Densidad): It consists of the number of temporary or permanent residents per unit area (in this case the estimated unit area is the hectare).
- r)Net density (Densidad neta): It shall be understood as the ratio of inhabitants divided by the total surface area of occupied land, previously discounting road surfaces.
- s)Right-of-way (Derecho de vía): It is the measurement of the public use zone, taken between the demarcation lines established by the MOPT, the Municipality of Puntarenas, or a Regulatory Plan.
- t)Buildings (Edificaciones): All those works destined for habitation, work, recreation, tourism, etc.
- u)Hotel (Hotel): It is 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, at the client's choice. It must occupy the entirety of a building or a part of it that is completely independent, with dependencies that constitute a homogeneous whole, with entrances, hallways, stairs, and elevators for the exclusive use of the establishment.
- v)Residential Hotel (Hotel Residencia): It is a hotel that does not offer food service.
- w)Building index (Índice de edificabilidad): the building index is a constant and specific value according to each use, be it Tourist Residential, Tourist Commercial, Tourist Lodging, etc. This result consists of the total number of square meters of habitable construction, permitted in any number of floors (plantas).
- x)Offender (Infractor): Natural person, legal entity, or any Government agency that does not comply with these Zoning Regulations.
- y)Infrastructure (Infraestructura): Urban character services and installations, such as: roads, drainages, aqueducts, sewers, electricity, telephony, and other similar ones.
- z)Lot (Lote): A parcel of land of any size, whether granted in concession or in private property.
a¨ Tourist Motel (Motel Turístico): It is a type of hotel establishment that provides lodging service for a daily rate and has the following characteristics:
1. It offers travelers parking for their vehicles within the same establishment.
2. It is located, preferably, outside urban centers and in the proximity of public highways.
3. It has a minimum of five rooms, all with private bathroom and independent entrance from the outside.
4. The building (edificación) does not exceed two floors (plantas), and it is indicated on their exterior, by means of luminous signs that allow for easy reading from the highway both day and night, whether there are vacancies or not.
b¨ Number of floors (Número de plantas): It must be understood as total floors (plantas) or total or partial coverage of the floor area (mezzanine counts as a floor (planta) or story (piso)).
c¨ Floor coverage (Cobertura de piso): (Maximum Capacity) Consists of the percentage of land that can be covered by built-up areas, habitable or not, such as access roads, parking lots, pools, and other non-natural covers; internal green areas (áreas verdes) are considered residual areas not included in the occupancy percentage; they must be destined for gardens, lakes, fruit trees, ornamentals, etc.
d¨ Boarding house (Pensión): It is a type of small establishment that is normally managed on a family basis, with a minimum capacity of three rooms, and which offers food service on a full-board or half-board plan, at a single global rate.
e¨ Owner (Propietario): It is the person(s), company(ies), or agency(ies) that hold(s) title to land adjacent to the Zona Marítimo Terrestre.
f¨ Protection (Protección): It is that area in which urban works are subject to restrictions.
g¨ Setbacks (Retiros): Unbuilt open spaces between a structure and the boundaries of the respective property (predio).
h¨ Plot of land (Solar): Size or dimension of a property or parcel of any size, whether granted in concession or in private property.
i¨ Urbanization (Urbanización): It is the subdivision (fraccionamiento) and enabling of land for urban purposes through the opening of streets and provision of services.
j¨ Use (Uso): Exploitation, on a private basis, of areas or properties (predios).
k¨ Permitted use (Uso permitido): It is that use of the property (finca) or lot (lote), over which the concessionaire has the possibility of destining their land, without further restrictions than those indicated herein and prior processing of the construction permits required by the Municipality of Puntarenas.
l¨ Conditional use (Uso condicional): It is that which, even if not the most recommendable for the terrain conditions, does not generate conflict with the permitted uses (usos permitidos). This use may be given to land, prior special authorization from the Municipal Council (Concejo Municipal) and the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, through a certificate.
m¨ Non-conforming uses (Usos no conformes): It is that which does not conform to the zoning indicated in the Regulatory Plan. Non-conforming uses (Usos no conformes) are not permitted under any condition.
n¨ Public road (Vía pública): Spaces destined for the circulation of vehicles or pedestrians.
o¨ Tourist dwelling (Vivienda turística): It is a type of establishment that provides lodging service for a daily or monthly rate, with units that are independent, with one or more bedrooms, private bathroom, kitchen, independent entrance from the outside, and with parking for guests' vehicles.
p¨ Single-family dwelling (Vivienda unifamiliar): It is the building (edificación) provided with habitable areas, destined for the accommodation of a single family.
q¨ Zoning (Zonificación): It is the division of a territorial circumscription into use zones, for the purpose of its rational development.