In reply to Joel's good question about Boston "linkage fees" and the possibility of doing something similar in Framingham...
Neither Framingham nor any other municipality in the Commonwealth has authorization by statute to impose "linkage fees," except for the City of Boston. This is due to Chapter 371, The Boston Linkage Enabling Act: An Act authorizing certain actions by the City of Boston to mitigate the effects of new large-scale commercial real estate development.
Without boring you to death with the language of the act which goes on forever with "whereas" this and that...the gist of the preamble explains why the general court finds that:
"A serious public emergency exists in the city of Boston with respect to housing and employment of a substantial number of citizens of the city... Whereas, due to its concentrated population, its intense land use by business, educational, governmental, and religious entities, its role as the center of commerce and finance in New England, and its geographic layout, the city of Boston is unique in the Commonwealth."
The Act goes on to describe the lack of an adequate supply of affordable housing for low and moderate income residents and the adverse impact that large-scale commercial developments have on the availablilty of such affordable housing, and on the availabilty of jobs for which low and moderate income residents are qualified. Therefore the act declares that the linkage shall be used to mitigate these effects.
As you can see, not only are we as a town not authorized to use "linkage," the money collected in Boston can only be used in very specific ways.... to mitigate the affordable housing and employment impacts, not for open space acquisition or other laudable uses.
The Town of Framingham does include a mitigation requirement in our zoning by-law for 3%-6% of the total development cost of the proposed commercial project to be used "to improve the capacity and safety of roads, intersections, pedestrian ways, water, sewer, drainage, and other public facilities which are likely to be affected by the proposed development." The mitigation money must be used in the area of the project. The mitigation requirement is limited in scope and the bylaw could likely be challenged in court if the Planning Board used the mitigation in other ways. That's a risk that could cost the Town millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements if the bylaw was struck down.
In the case of Boston Properties, as mentioned in Barbara Gray's email, the Board of Selectman negotiated a gift of money specifically for open space acquisition at the time the developer was requesting a zoning designation of a parcel inside the Exit 12 Interchange (not for the development itself.) The Town doesn't often get this kind of opportunity.
One more point of information....There is no legal mechanism for off-site mitigation requirements for residential sub-division projects. I hope this helps to clarify the legal parameters in which the Planning Board must work when it comes to mitigation money. Believe me, we wish it were different!
Happy Weekend!
Helen Lemoine
Planning Board Chairman
