Developers “Unite in Opposition” to Affordable Linkage Fee

The affordability debate is heating up again as the city council pushes for a new linkage fee that will increase the cost of development. The development community is adamantly against the proposed fee—which is expected to easily pass. Large commercial and residential developers will be most affected. In an interview with Paul Beard, a partner in Alston & Bird’s Environmental, Land Use & Natural Resources Practice Group, we learn why developers are so opposed to the fee and how they should prepare for it. Beard recommends that the development community “unites in opposition” to the linkage fee, which he believes will pass.

GlobeSt.com: Why are developers so opposed to the proposed linkage fee?

Paul Beard: Most developers are opposed to the proposed linkage fee, because it is both bad policy and fundamentally unfair.  First, the linkage fee will only increase the cost of residential and commercial construction, which ultimately will be passed on to buyers, renters, and lessees.  Thus, the proposed fee serves only to make even less affordable the city’s already-limited supply of commercial space and housing.  But worse than that, it unfairly targets developers.  Developers aren’t the cause of the lack of affordable housing; they are the solution.  And the proposed linkage fee only punishes their laudable efforts in supplying the city with badly needed projects, especially housing units.