Santa Fe might be looking at a new round of public hearings over attempts to stop development on hilltops.

The Planning Commission recently balked on amending the controversial escarpment ordinance after developers said the regulations have become so confusing that the entire law needs to be rewritten.

"The more this ordinance is tweaked, the more tortured the representations need to be about where people can actually build," developer Dennis Kensil told the commissioners Thursday. "I'm not sure with this ordinance on the books what I have or what I'm creating to sell."

The escarpment ordinance dates back to Feb. 26, 1992. Lots created after that in the ridge-top or foothills zones must have at least a 2,000-square-foot buildable site outside those two zones, so the houses are not so visible from below. The ordinance also calls for plantings in front of the new houses to obscure them.

But in September 2006, after an uproar over loopholes that allowed Andrew and Sydney Davis to build a 26,000-square-foot residential compound on a ridge in the Sierra del Norte subdivision, councilors enacted amendments that impose restrictions on some pre-1992 lots if their lot lines had been changed since 1992, and create other restrictions for post-1992 lots.

Ronald Van Amberg, a lawyer who represents clients who own land in the escarpment district, told the Planning Commission on Thursday that one of his clients owns three lots with no legal building site because of the 2006 amendments. This "is taking legal lots of record and imposing new restrictions on them, which we submit goes so far that it constitutes (an un)constitutional taking," he said.

Bruce Geist said his Phase One Realty has sold many lots on the north side "to people who believed they understood what they were buying under the current escarpment ordinance, and now wake up ... to have something entirely different." The escarpment regulations make developing affordable housing in the rugged Northwest Quadrant especially difficult, he said.

Wendy Blackwell, a director of the technical review division of the city Land Use Department, recently proposed six clarifications and three substantive changes to the ordinance. The clarifications include specifying that royal blue and forest green can be approved by staff for window trim colors. The changes include letting staff approve additions of up to 50 percent of the existing structure in the foothills district, rather than going to the Planning Commission for a variance.

In addition, Councilor Chris Calvert has proposed revising the regulations on plantings around houses so they are less susceptible to wildfires. Evergreens at least 6 feet tall would have to be planted every 12 feet, from 5 to 30 feet away from the structure, rather than "within 15 feet," as the ordinance now reads.

On Thursday, Planning Commissioner Matthew O'Reilly, who is a builder, said he has been dealing with the escarpment ordinance for years and believes it is one of the most "poorly written the city has ever put in place. ...

"What really needs to happen is the escarpment ordinance needs to be scrapped in its entirety," he said. "I don't think we want to continue to make small changes."

Commissioner Gloria Lopez said she was sympathetic to landowners who bought property with "dreams perhaps their house will be at the very top (of a hill) and now that's impossible." Commissioner John Salazar pointed out that city maps of ridge-top and foothills districts are not always accurate.

But Commissioner Ken Hughes defended the escarpment code. "I think there's some crocodile tears being shed when you raise takings," he said. "If you can only build on 10 percent, it's still quite a very valuable place, and a lot of people in the rest of town would love to swap with you," he said.

Commissioner Signe Lindell said she built a house that was in both a historic district and the escarpment district and is "not sorry for any of the process I went through."

But Hughes and Lindell went along with the commission's unanimous voice vote approving O'Reilly's motion to recommend the City Council approve the fire-safety changes suggested by Calvert, but reject the other amendments pending "a full public-planning process as part of their revision process of Chapter 14 (the city land-use code) to involve the commission and the public."

The commission also voted to form a subcommittee to study the issues around the escarpment code comprising O'Reilly, Boni Armijo and Angela Schackle Bordegaray. O'Reilly said he looks forward to another round of public hearings on the escarpment code, similar to those in the 1990s when the city ordinance and a similar county law were enacted.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.