Las Piedras Head Start center remodel clears environmental review
The Centro Head Start Thomas Edison, which the Municipality of Las Piedras runs at Carretera 198 Km 19.7, Ceiba, Las Piedras, has an approved environmental compliance determination by categorical exclusion for a remodel, filed May 26, 2026. The municipality describes the job as the remodeling of an existing structure used as a child care center.
A categorical exclusion finds that a routine or predictable action needs no further environmental planning. It is not a construction permit, and no construction permit for the remodel has been filed since, so the project is at an early stage and the approval does not show that work has started.
An approved permit for electricity generators, dated June 1, 2026, sits under the same case number, 2019-289725, with the same remodel description.
A center with a long permit file
The case number dates to 2019. Under it, the municipality holds an approved construction permit dated October 6, 2020, and three approved single permits to operate the center, the latest dated February 11, 2025.
Before the center, a business selling batteries and parts won approved permits at the address in August 2015. The lot covers 3,437 m2 (36,997 sq ft) of common rural land in the Puerto Rico Land Use Plan, and no sale of the property is on record.
Two other Head Start centers in Las Piedras have remodel requests on file. At the municipality's center in Collores, on Carretera 926, a single permit request with the same remodel description was filed August 3, 2026 and later deleted; a second single permit request for that center, filed August 12, 2026, is marked incomplete. At the Centro Head Start La Ribera, on Carretera 198 Km 22.5, a single permit request to remodel the existing building used as a child care center was filed October 7, 2026 and is marked for correction.
