Mexico City Building Code (RCDF): Permits, DRO, Corresponsables, and Soil Zones

Mexico City regulates construction through the Reglamento de Construcciones para el Distrito Federal (RCDF), published in the Gaceta Oficial on 29 January 2004, plus its Normas Técnicas Complementarias (NTC). This guide follows the RCDF text in our library, whose last amendment is dated 19 April 2021. This guide rests on the 2021 text. Later reforms were published on 8 May 2024 and 4 October 2024, and we could not open them to check whether they touch the articles cited here; check the current text on the city’s Gaceta or PAOT before filing, and read the NTC for all numeric design values.

Where do COS and CUS come from?

The RCDF does not set building coverage or floor area ratios. Land use and intensity come from the urban development programs (Programas de Desarrollo Urbano) and the Ley de Desarrollo Urbano. Article 1 makes projects subject to that law and its regulation as well as the RCDF; Articles 26 and 27 send mixed-use projects and site restrictions back to the programs, and the Administration records those restrictions in the permits it issues. COS (Coeficiente de Ocupación del Suelo) is the share of the site the building may cover, and CUS (Coeficiente de Utilización del Suelo) is total built area divided by site area. Read both, with height and open-area rules, from the site’s zoning certificate (certificado de zonificación), not from a general range.

What are the key numbers in the RCDF?

What permits does the RCDF require before construction begins?

Before building, enlarging, repairing or modifying a work, the owner, the DRO and the Corresponsables must register a manifestación de construcción (Article 47). Registration does not apply to land in conservation soil (suelo de conservación), where a special licence is required instead (Articles 47 and 57(I)).

Article 51 sets the types. Type A covers small works such as one single-family dwelling of up to 120 m² built area on a lot with a minimum 6 m frontage, two levels, 5.5 m maximum height and clear spans of 4 m or less (a site in a risk zone needs type B). Types B and C cover larger works. Types B and C are signed by a DRO, and the Corresponsables sign where Article 36 requires them (Articles 34(I), 35(I)).

The licencia de construcción especial (Articles 55 and 57) covers, among others: works in conservation soil, utilities in the public way, cell-site structures, demolitions, excavations deeper than 1 m, hoardings that project more than 0.5 m over the sidewalk, temporary fairground-type works, and installing elevators, escalators or fire equipment in existing buildings.

Heritage: buildings in federally declared monument zones or in Áreas de Conservación Patrimonial need prior authorisation from the city’s housing and urban development secretariat and from INAH or INBAL, depending on the monument (Article 28). Article 36 also requires a structural Corresponsable for works in those zones.

Emergency works by public utility concessionaires may start without prior permit, but the concessionaire must notify the borough and Civil Protection at once and deliver the technical file within three business days of starting (Article 14).

What does the Director Responsable de Obra do?

The DRO (Director Responsable de Obra) is an individual who assists the Administration, is registered through the Instituto, and must enforce the law and the RCDF on the works covered by the responsiva (Article 32). To register, an applicant needs a professional licence as architect, civil engineer or a listed equivalent, a favourable examination result, 5 years of experience in design and construction, and active membership of the professional association (Article 33).

The DRO gives a responsiva when signing a type B or C manifestación, a special licence application, a structural stability opinion or a safety-and-operation approval (Article 34). Article 35 lists the duties: keeping the bitácora, ordering compliance on site, posting a sign with the DRO’s and Corresponsables’ names and registration numbers, keeping the as-built drawings and calculation reports, and renewing the registration as in the table above.

Which Corresponsables are required?

A Corresponsable is a registered specialist in one of three areas: structural safety, urban and architectural design, or installations (Article 36). They are required only in the cases Article 36 lists, not on every project. Examples from the text:

• Structural safety: the cases set by the NTC for structural safety review (NTC-RSEE), and buildings in monument zones or heritage conservation areas.
• Urban and architectural design: apartment buildings with more than 50 dwellings, hospitals and similar listed uses, other buildings over 2,000 m² covered, over 20 m high or for more than 250 people in closed rooms (1,000 in open ones), and structures above 15 m such as cell towers.
• Installations: apartment buildings with more than 50 dwellings, other listed uses, other buildings over 2,000 m², over 15 m high or for more than 250 people, and any building with passenger or freight elevators or escalators.

Confirm the full list in Article 36 for your use. When a Corresponsable is required, the DRO must verify that the Corresponsable meets the duties in Article 39 and the logbook (Article 35(II)).

What must the bitácora de obra contain?

Article 35(V) requires a numbered logbook stamped by the borough or the Secretaría, kept in the care of the owner or possessor (who may delegate to the contractor but stays responsible). If the book is lost or stolen, the signing parties keep signed copies. The text lists, among other data:

• names and signatures of the owner, DRO, contractor, Corresponsables, designers and soil specialist;
• the name of the firm executing the work;
• materials used for structural or safety purposes;
• general construction and quality control procedures;
• details defined during construction;
• dates of visits, observations and instructions of the DRO and Corresponsables;
• start date of each stage;
• incidents and accidents.

How does the RCDF divide the city by soil?

Article 170 splits the city into three geotechnical zones, used for the foundation and structure chapters. Zone I (Lomas) is rock or generally firm soil. Zone II (Transición) has deep deposits at 20 m or less, mostly sandy and silty layers with some lake clay. Zone III (Lacustre) has thick, highly compressible clay deposits separated by sand layers, covered by alluvial soil and fill; the whole sequence can be more than 50 m thick. The zone is determined from the site investigation; for light and medium buildings the NTC map may be used, and a site within 200 m of a boundary between two zones is treated as being in the less favourable one.

Design spectra, periods and seismic coefficients are set in the NTC for seismic design, not in the RCDF; take them from the current NTC edition. The RCDF text does not assign a seismic “zone D” to the city; that label comes from national maps and is not part of this regulation.

What RCDF mistakes should you avoid?

1. Starting structural work without a required structural Corresponsable. Where Article 36 requires one, the responsiva is needed to register the manifestación or obtain the licence.
2. Reading density from a general range. Take coverage, intensity and height from the site’s zoning certificate and the applicable program.
3. Using the wrong soil zone. Article 170 requires the zone to come from the site investigation, and a site within 200 m of a boundary takes the less favourable zone.
4. Gaps in the bitácora. Article 35(V) makes the logbook the record of who instructed and who signed at each stage.
5. Assuming liability ends after five years. Article 41 excludes safety-and-operation approvals and structural safety certificates from the five-year cut-off.