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.