According to Susan Ellsbery, spokesperson for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Menino's "home-rule" petition would increase the linkage fees to $7.18 per sf for housing and $1.44 per sf for job training. Linkage fees are the costs a developer must pay for a project built here over 100,000 sf to compensate for the impact the project will have on a community. The money goes to create affordable housing and job training.
"We feel its appropriate for a developer to mitigate these issues," Ellsbery tells GlobeStcom. Menino recently committed $13 million in funding--most of which is from linkage fees--for nearly 800 units of affordable housing here.
Ellsbery points out that the city is allowed to raise the linkage fees every three years according to the Consumer Price Index. Because there was so little commercial development in the city before two years ago, fees weren't raised. Now that the market has rebounded and there are many large-scale developments, the city would like to see those fees go up.
Reportedly, Sen. Marian Walsh has questioned the constitutionality of raising the fees. Walsh's office did not return calls by presstime, but she has said that this process does not appear to be a fair way to raise the fees. She gave the BRA an analysis that concludes that linkage fees, which are a tax, should be tailored to each development. Ellsbery insists that linkage fees are not a tax. "There are no constitutional issues here," she says.
Linkage fees took on a slightly shady character last year when it was discovered that South Boston was receiving most of the money raised by the waterfront development and also receiving community benefits from developers. While opponents insist that the problems in the system that were exposed then are still around, Ellsbery contends that that issue was cleared up.
"From our perspective, that's been resolved," she says. The increase, she notes, is coming out of a commission created after the South Boston scandal that is comprised of local activists and businesspeople. "They all have very different issues," notes Ellsbery, "but we want to create more affordable housing."
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