Housing department files 240-day rebuild of Coamo's Hayales court
The Puerto Rico housing department, Departamento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, has filed to rebuild a basketball court damaged by Hurricane María on the school lot at Carretera 143, Hayales, Coamo. Both filings for the project are dated August 10, 2026, and the construction permit is under inspection.
The filings name the project Reconstruccion Techo Cancha Hayales and describe the works as the reconstruction of the existing basketball court, which suffered severe damage when Hurricane María passed. They give the site as Km 6.8 of Carretera PR 567 in Bo. Hayales.
Two steps filed on one day
The department filed two requests on August 10, 2026. The environmental compliance determination by categorical exclusion, which certifies that a routine action needs no further environmental planning, is approved. The consolidated construction permit, which combines the construction, remodeling, demolition and urbanization permits into one, is under inspection.
The construction permit filing lists 240 days of work. A filing does not establish that any work has started.
The lot and its school
The lot measures 3,756 square meters, and a public school, Escuela Superior Enrique Colón, stands on it. Puerto Rico's Land Use Plan classifies it as common rural land. The two filings for the court are the only permit requests on the lot, and no sale of it has been recorded.
A second court roof in Coamo
The department has roofed a court in Coamo before. For the existing court in the San Antonio community of Bo. Pasto, about 10 km away, it filed consolidated construction permits to roof the court and close in its perimeter on December 9, 2022 and October 15, 2024, and both are approved; the filings say the court will serve as a shelter during storms. A later single-permit request, filed on February 11, 2025, to rebuild the steel roof structure over that court and close its perimeter, is awaiting corrections.
Around the Hayales court, 13 other permit requests were filed within 1 km over the past 12 months. The nearest is a consolidated construction permit for a commercial building 72 meters away, filed in March 2026 and still incomplete.