Yabucoa cemetery entrance remodeling clears environmental review in Barrio Pueblo
Yabucoa's municipal cemetery is the site of a public works project to remodel its entrances, and the project has cleared an environmental review, according to permit filings analysed by RED Atlas. The sponsor is the Municipio de Yabucoa, and the project, Rehabilitación Cementerio Municipal, Yabucoa, sits at Calle, Núm. 1, Urb. Reparto Horizonte, Bo. Pueblo Yabucoa, Puerto Rico 00767.
The latest filing is a environmental compliance determination by categorical exclusion, status approved, filed September 24, 2026, under case number 2026-688329-DEC-332250. It lists rehabilitation, remodeling as the kind of work, and its works description, quoted as filed, states: The project consists of the architectural remodeling of two (2) entrances in two (2) different areas of the Cementerio Municipal de Yabucoa. It does not include work in the Cementerio Antiguo.
A determination by categorical exclusion certifies that a predictable or routine action needs no further environmental planning. With that approval, the remodeling of the two entrances has passed the environmental step on its own terms.
A string of earlier filings
The environmental determination came after several other filings for the same cemetery project. Over the preceding months, the municipality sought recommendations on health and safety and on archaeology and historic preservation, and it applied for a combined construction permit. The health and safety request was first left incomplete and later approved, both archaeology requests were approved, and both construction permit applications remain incomplete: health and safety recommendation request, filed August 18, 2026, status approved on August 18, 2026; consolidated construction permit, status incomplete, filed August 18, 2026; consolidated construction permit, status incomplete, filed August 16, 2026; archaeology and historic preservation recommendation request, status approved, filed June 17, 2026; archaeology and historic preservation recommendation request, status approved, filed June 11, 2026; health and safety recommendation request, status incomplete, filed May 18, 2026.
A health and safety recommendation request is the step where the permits office reviews recommendations from the Health Department, the Fire Bureau and the Police Bureau for construction works. An archaeology and historic preservation request asks the permits office's archaeology and historic conservation division for a written opinion on a proposed action, and that opinion is non-binding. A consolidated construction permit combines the construction, remodeling, demolition and urbanization works permits into one.
The cemetery parcel
The Puerto Rico Land Use Plan classes the parcel as urban land, meaning land served by roads, water, electricity and other infrastructure in areas already consolidated by building. That class alone does not make a lot buildable.
Its zoning district is D-G, or Dotacional General, a district for public or private land used for institutional, civic, educational, cultural, religious, recreational and similar facilities. The parcel records give it a land area of 21,047 m2 / 226,548 sq ft, and the property-tax records put the assessed value of its land and structures at $0.
Across all years, the parcel has 7 permit filings on record, a total that includes the filings for the cemetery project.
- Categorical exclusion filings in Yabucoa, past 12 months
- 62
- Categorical exclusion filings in Yabucoa, the 12 months before that
- 82
- Permit filings for other Barrio Pueblo parcels, past 90 days
- 23
Filing activity around Yabucoa
Yabucoa has had fewer environmental determinations by categorical exclusion over the past 12 months than in the 12 months before that. That points to a quieter year for this kind of filing across the municipality.
In Barrio Pueblo, where the cemetery stands, other parcels have kept up a steady flow of permit filings of all types over the past 90 days.