Part 2 Permitting continued…
There is no one, single way to do the permitting process, and there is no single entry point. How you do permitting will depend a lot on who you hire and how much you’re willing to spend. Many of the procedures discussed in this chapter can be carried out in parallel, either legally or extra-legally. Permitting any sizable construction project, however, is not a do-it-yourself experience, and for the most part you’ll start out by hiring the professionals you will need for the process.
After drawing up your construction plans, you’ll be doing permitting in an attempt to please basically four government entities.
The Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos (CFIA) will want to know that your construction plans include all the basic elements that construction plans should. They will also want to know that for the project, you have hired professionals registered with the CFIA.
The Secretaria Técnica Nacional Ambiental (SETENA)needs to be satisfied that your construction project will not significantly damage the environment or the local community. If you’re doing a development of a high enough density, the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo (INVU)has a whole list of different permits and go-aheads you’ll have to get from different government agencies before it will give your project the green light. And finally, the local municipality where you are building will want you to present the CFIA, SETENA, and INVU approvals (plus perhaps a few others) before it will grant you your construction permits.
An important point is that each municipality requires different documents for the granting of the final construction permits. But even if the municipality grants you a construction permit without one of the permits you need from some branch of the central government bureaucracy say, the environmental certification you still need that permit. This redundancy of authority is one of the curiosities (some would say absurdities) of the Costa Rican system: Just because a builder has construction permits from a municipality does not mean the construction is legal. The other permits for the construction must be obtained regardless of what the municipality says or you could be shut down at any moment by a central government regulator. Keep this in mind if you’re tempted to bribe a municipal official to get your permits. That ill-gotten permit won’t do you much good if the cen¬tral government decides to bring down the hammer.
At the same time, however, the bitter irony (as long-time developers in Costa Rica will tell you) is that there are so many regulations and restrictions administered independently of one another by so many different branches of the Costa Rican bureaucracy that sometimes you don’t fully comply with the law even when you want to. Do your best.
A final important principle to keep in mind as you approach the permitting process is that land in Costa Rica is under the Napoleonic legal regime, not the common law regime found in the United States and Canada. In practice, that means that while you technically own the land, you don’t own any natural resource on top of it or below it. Trees, mineral deposits, well water, rivers, lakes, springs, wildlife, and all the rest are property of the State. The principle to follow, therefore, is that if you are going to remove, use, or modify any of these things on “your” property, there is probably a permit or concession you will have get from somewhere.
Bureaucracy glossary
It helps to be familiar with the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies you will be dealing with during the permitting process. Following, a brief list:
MINAET (www.minaet.go.cr): The Ministerio del Ambiente, Energía, y Telecomunicaciones, or Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications. This is the big cheese when it comes to environmental regulation in Costa Rica. Permits to cut down trees, drill wells, and mine anything must pass through one of its many branches.
SETENA: The Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental, or the National Technical Environmental Secretariat. A branch of MINAET. SETENA is the bugaboo of many a would-be developer, as this is the agency that reviews the environmental impact of developments and gives them the thumbs up or thumbs down. Its infamy comes from the incredibly slow process of the environmental review. For developments that have to do a full impact study, the entire processes takes about two years, often more.
ICE:The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, or Costa Rican Electricity Institute. The government monopoly that controls all electricity generation and distribution and, until recently, telecom-munications.
AyA:The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. Ba-sically the state water utility. AyA does not have national coverage, and in many parts of the country outside the Central Valley, developers have to get water permits elsewhere.
ASADA:Asociaciones Administradoras de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Sanitarios, or Administration Association of Sewer and Aqueduct Systems. In some parts of the country, these are the as-sociations that manage the water supply. They are local, and whether you have to deal with one depends entirely on where your property is located.
INVU:The Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo, or the National Housing and Urbanism Institute. INVU is supposedly in charge of urban planning, meaning that all condominium and subdivision developments need its seal of approval.
ICT:The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, or the Costa Rica Tour¬ism Board. Anything that has to do with the Maritime Zone (i.e. –coastal land within
200 m. of high tide) happens through the ICT. Also, permits for hotel and restaurant operations.
Ministerio de Salud:The Health Ministry. Salud oversees every¬thing having to do with public health, including wastewater disposal and water treatment, as well as health certifications for hotels and restaurants.
CFIA:Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, or the Federated Association of Engineers and Architects. This government-sanctioned professional association must give the OK to all construction projects. The Association is primarily concerned with technical design issues.
That covers the process and the agencies. to the average person, it may not be adequate so if you wish to discuss it further and/or arrange a conference call with our engineering firm to assist you in understanding better our process,call
Robert at 1 888 581 1786 local number is 506 2293 2446. If you are a Costa Rica land owner here and would like to investigate best use of your property, whether it is a large tract of land or Condo project, we will be happy to give you a presentation complete with pricing.
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