In Atenas, a 1982 Line Still Decides What Your Lot Can Become

"Esto no es plan regulador." This is not a zoning plan. Francisco Rodríguez, director of the Escuela de Ciencias Geográficas at the Universidad Nacional, said it to the Atenas Concejo Municipal on November 6, 2024. He was pointing at a map of San Isidro, San José and Santa Eulalia. The map showed red patches where national law limits building and green patches where it does not. He compared it to an X-ray. It shows what the law already restricts, but it is not a plan for what should be built.

That session is still the most detailed public account of how land is regulated in Atenas, and its main finding still applies. When El Observador published on June 15, 2026, it cited INVU's statistics portal, current through May 2026, and listed Atenas among the 40 Costa Rican cantons without a plan regulador. For a buyer, that changes the first question. In Atenas the useful question is which set of rules applies to a parcel, and that depends on which district the parcel is in.

A plan that has been in review since October 2024

Atenas has been working on a plan for more than two decades. The work kept getting stuck, at a different step each time.

1. 2002 to 2010. Atenas was one of 31 Greater Metropolitan Area cantons in PRUGAM, a regional planning effort funded with support from the European Union. The effort stalled in 2010 for all 31 cantons.
2. 2015 to 2016. The municipality and the Universidad Nacional restarted the work. In March 2016 they signed a 27 million colón agreement covering the five districts inside the GAM.
3. 2020 to 2022. The pandemic delayed the required public hearing. It finally took place on September 3, 2022, and drew close to 40 written observations. Many came from landowners who wanted to know what the plan would mean for their lot.
4. October 2024. The municipality submitted the proposal to INVU for technical review and paid the review fee. Rodríguez told the council he expected INVU's opinion within about 30 days, counting from October 15. He also stressed that a technical review is a separate step from approval.
5. 2025. The municipality's budget presentation listed publishing the GAM-district plan in La Gaceta as a goal for the year. In February 2025, the Concejo ratified a follow-up commission to handle communications with SETENA and INVU.
6. January 2026. In ordinary session N°139, the council president was still rescheduling a pending Plan Regulador meeting.

Our research found no published INVU opinion, adoption vote or La Gaceta publication after that. Until those steps happen, the draft has no legal force.

Three rulebooks inside one canton

In 1982, INVU's Plan GAM drew the boundary of the Greater Metropolitan Area. Five Atenas districts fell inside it and three fell outside. The ridge known as Cerros de Atenas, which was also designated in 1982, follows a third set of rules.

The Cerros row matters for anyone looking at ridge property. Rodríguez told the council that landowners there handle some approvals through SINAC because the municipality has no jurisdiction there. He described that route as "un camino con el SINAC," a path through SINAC, for anyone seeking a permit or planning work. Two lots with similar views can therefore answer to different agencies.

What the national rulebook asks of a lot today

Without a local plan, INVU's Reglamento de Fraccionamiento y Urbanizaciones applies. The regulation says so itself. It governs wherever a municipality has not issued its own planning rules. In a council discussion of the non-GAM districts, Rodríguez put it more simply: "porque no tenemos plan, entonces nos rige lo nacional." Because there is no plan, national rules govern.

The regulation's definitions decide who reviews a split and how much paperwork it needs.

• Subdivision for urban development. This is a split that faces an existing public road outside an urban quadrant or a previously developed area. If the split creates eight or more lots with a combined area of at least 900 m², INVU must approve the survey first and the municipality second. Splits of fewer than eight lots need municipal approval only.
• Simple subdivision. This is a split that faces an existing public road inside an urban quadrant or a previously developed area.
• Agricultural, livestock or forestry subdivision. This is any split reached through an agricultural, livestock or forestry easement.

The last category catches people out. A rural easement into a parcel does not give the right to create residential lots behind it. The regulation limits exceptional residential access to the urban quadrant and its expansion area, and it caps the access's length, width and number of lots. For subdivisions for urban development, Article 20 sets the minimum lot area at 90 m² where a sanitary sewer or treatment plant exists. Where neither exists, the minimum is 120 m², provided the lot has a septic tank or a similar wastewater system that meets Ministry of Health (MINSA) rules. The same article requires a minimum frontage of 6 m and limits a lot's depth to seven times its frontage. Have a surveyor confirm which figures apply to a specific parcel.

The draft shows where the rules may be heading

A council member asked how the proposed density categories would translate into lot sizes. Rodríguez answered from memory and said he would send the exact figures later. He recalled about 500 m² as the minimum for medium density, with two stories if he remembered correctly, about 1,000 m² for low density and about 1,500 m² for very low density. The draft includes no high-density category. He said residents and the municipality had not wanted lots of 150 to 260 m² like those common around San José.

These numbers are proposals described in a meeting. They are not in force. Even so, the smallest of them is several times the 90 to 120 m² national minimum that applies now. They show which way the GAM districts have said they want to go, which is toward larger minimum lots. The draft also marks areas near Route 27 that might become industrial or technology zones in the future, and mixed-use strips along the main roads where homes, shops and restaurants could share a block. If a buyer is counting on splitting a lot into small pieces under current national rules, the draft is a reason to check whether that plan would still work after adoption.

Where demand is building, the plan is furthest behind

The three districts outside the GAM are the ones without even a draft zoning map. At the November 2024 session, municipal planner Ana Patricia Calvo said the municipality had spent 60 million colones on that process and still had no zoning defined. District representatives from San Isidro and Santa Eulalia raised concerns at the same meeting about how the process was being run and how people's property rights would be treated. The Concejo responded by asking the plan commission to schedule publicized workshops in all three districts. On June 23, 2025, the work was still at the environmental stage. The council sent a SETENA-related methodology request to committee for review and did not vote on a plan.

Meanwhile, the area next door has changed. Danicio Cedeño, the síndico for Santa Eulalia, told the council he expected that many people would want to buy land in the district because of nearby Grecia and the Evolución free zone. Evolution Free Zone is in Tacares, Grecia, and is developed by CODE Development Group. In September 2026, the developer said the park had eight advanced-manufacturing companies and 6,000 first jobs confirmed in the short term. It listed Atenas among the Western Region communities it expects to benefit. Trelleborg Medical Solutions opened a 10,000 m² plant there in December 2025. Forj Medical opened a nearly 5,000 m² facility there in September 2026 after a US$15 million investment.

The developer's own description says the park connects directly to Route 1. Our research found no announced new road or bridge linking it to Santa Eulalia. Rodríguez noted that the slope and a one-lane bridge currently limit that link. The result is that the part of Atenas most often mentioned in connection with the free zone is also the part where future land-use rules are least defined.

Before you sign on land in Atenas

1. Confirm which district the parcel is in. That tells you whether the Plan GAM applies, whether the draft zoning could someday apply, or whether neither does yet.
2. Ask whether the parcel is inside the Cerros de Atenas protective zone. If it is, SINAC's management plan applies and the municipality is not the only office to consult.
3. Get a municipal land-use certificate. The INVU regulation describes this certificate as proof that a planned use complies with the rules.
4. Check how the parcel is accessed. Find out whether it faces a public road or is reached by an agricultural easement, because that determines which type of subdivision is possible.
5. Check the boundaries for rivers, streams and springs. Rodríguez told the council that anyone whose land borders a waterway currently has to ask INVU for an official alignment to learn where building can start.
6. If you plan to subdivide, count the lots first. A split of eight or more lots totaling 900 m² or more needs INVU approval before the municipality reviews it.

All of this is general information about the process. Have a Costa Rican attorney and a licensed surveyor confirm how it applies to a specific parcel.

A Few Distinct Questions

Is Jesús inside the GAM? Yes. Jesús is one of the five GAM districts, along with Atenas centro, Mercedes, Concepción and Escobal.

Can I rely on the draft's lot sizes today? No. The draft has not been adopted or published in La Gaceta, and the figures were recalled from memory during a council session.

Does Santa Eulalia have any zoning? It has no local zoning proposal. National law and INVU's regulation apply until a plan is approved.

If you are weighing a lot in Atenas and want to know which of these rulebooks applies before you commit, Bryana Conway can help. We work with your attorney and surveyor to check the district, access and approval path first, then plan a design and build that fits those rules. Let's Connect.