Santa Fe city councilors are considering changing development rules to provide some relief for an ailing construction industry.

Councilors Rebecca Wurzburger, Matthew Ortiz, Ron Trujillo and Carmichael Dominguez are co-sponsoring a measure that would reduce temporarily the percentage of homes in a new subdivision that are required to meet affordability guidelines.

While current rules require developers to produce 30 percent of housing units at a certain price and sell those units to income-qualified buyers, the proposal would cut that percentage in half for projects seeking approval between now and 2013.

"We have been getting zero," Wurzburger said at a recent committee hearing, "and 30 percent of zero is still zero."

She didn't respond to requests for an interview Tuesday or Wednesday.

Trujillo said he hopes a rule change will entice builders to get moving again. "I want to see something being done," he said. "Nothing is happening now."

Melisa Dailey, senior housing planner for the city, said the demand for affordable housing has decreased only slightly since the city adopted rules in 2005 to create more homes within the price range of working families. Down-payment assistance and a falloff in prices for existing homes have enabled such buyers to acquire homes outside new developments.

Dailey said construction of new homes for the affordable-housing program peaked in 2008 at 84 units, then dropped in 2010 to 26 units. So far this year, 22 such units have been recorded, she said.

The last agreement for new affordable housing was signed in 2009, she said, which means that once developments with approvals are built out, few new homes are in the program's pipeline. In the last six months, however, several developers have talked about possible projects, she said.

Some developers have long argued that so-called "inclusionary zoning" rules hamper development of new homes and are cost-prohibitive.

The proposed ordinance change only would apply to new development plans, not those that already have received approval or are awaiting the start of construction, Dailey said.

Trujillo said he hopes developments that have stalled under the 30 percent requirement will return to the City Council to get new agreements for a lower percentage of affordable housing.

A public hearing on the ordinance amendment is tentatively scheduled before the Planning Commission on May 5 and the City Council on May 25.

Santa Fe County has adopted similar affordable-housing rules, and county policymakers also have been kicking around the idea of possible changes. County spokeswoman Kristine Mihelcic said "no official discussion" has occurred about changing the percentage of required affordable housing, but officials will address the program while discussing pending changes to the county's overall land-use code.

Another proposed measure pending before city officials would give developers more time to execute already-approved master plans and other development documents.

The governing body adopted a resolution last year that suspended deadlines on development approvals that were soon set to expire. Since "national, state and local economies have continued to experience a severe downturn," the resolution reads, and "have not clearly recovered," a new resolution extends for another year deadlines on projects that were set to expire between 2009 and now.

Wurzburger is the sponsor of that proposal. A fiscal-impact report says that without the change, developers would have to reapply to the Planning Commission and City Council for various entitlements, which would cost thousands of dollars and up to two years of delays.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.