Tax credits to finance low-cost housing in Mississippi will be limited to restoration projects for the remainder of the year, but two possible developments in Vicksburg and Warren County will still be allowed to compete for more than $20 million in incentives.

Changes announced by the Mississippi Home Corporation to its criteria for financing include cutting out proposals that would bring new construction.

The agency has received 86 applications for development and will grade them July 6.

MHC officials said the rules extend to all categories of low-cost housing, including those associated with provisions of the Katrina-inspired Gulf Opportunity Zone Act.

&#8220Those will not be affected,” said MHC spokesman Scott Spivey. &#8220We didn’t want to change the rules on those in the middle of the game.”

Among the 86 is a plan to build 72 single-family homes on 21 acres of largely undeveloped land at Wisconsin Avenue and Porters Chapel Road. The property is owned by the Sisters of Mercy religious order and is listed for sale.

Dallas-based Roundstone Development is vying for the property, according to MHC officials, and is applying for credits set aside for nonprofits as United Housing Foundation Inc.

If approved, any housing development there would need municipal zoning approval.

The other proposal, Warren HDI, also calls for 72 small homes and is planned for 174 acres of undeveloped land near China Grove and Gibson roads.

Its developer, William Brockman, president of Monroe, La.-based Sunquest Properties, tried unsuccessfully last year to build a similar subdivision near Dana Road, which was met with opposition from homeowners in the area.

Both are applying for special disaster credits under the GO Zone, an area of 49 counties in the state from the Gulf of Mexico to Columbus that was eligible for individual and governmental assistance funds following the storm.

Rules regarding public hearings, a required part of a development’s application, were also tightened.

Developers must notify local elected officials before the hearings, where they must show drawings of their plans to those in attendance.

The hearings must be held within three miles of the development’s zip code or within three miles of the proposed development.

MHC is also stipulating the hearings be moderated by the owner, developer or consultant whose involvement with the project includes a &#8220thorough understanding of the tax credit program,” a release from MHC said.

The changes reflect a tightening of the process following a flurry of proposals and approvals made after the Congress passed Katrina-relief legislation. A review showed many applications were for areas in the August 2005 storm’s path that had not lost significant housing. There were fewer applications for coastal areas, most of which are still trying to adopt construction standards.

Developers with Roundstone said in April the hearing concerning their development was held at Vicksburg Warren Chamber of Commerce offices in February and three people attended. A spokesman for Sunquest Properties said Tuesday a February hearing attracted no one at Battlefield Inn. Both hearings were held more than three miles from their proposed locations.

All applications are graded on a 122-point system based on following specific guidelines, some required and some optional. One renovation to begin in June is at the Circle Lake Apartments, where North Carolina-based Integra Development Partners plans a complete overhaul of the complex, built in 1950.

The firm received more than $400,000 in credits from MHC to redevelop the Hope Street apartments.

While the agency does not track how many developments awarded tax credits last year have begun building, Spivey said, the first tax credit checks are typically issued 15 months after they are awarded.