Home Rule - Jobs Linkage — File 194512

Chapter _________ AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PROJECT MITIGATION CONTRIBUTION (“LINKAGE”) PROGRAM FOR JOB CREATION AND RETENTION IN THE CITY OF SOMERVILLE Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of same, as follows: SECTION 1. Findings and Purpose. Whereas, the City of Somerville is undergoing a period of substantial growth in real estate development due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to transit- oriented development spurred by the new Orange Line station at Assembly Square and the Green Line Extension; and Whereas, this growth is attracting an increasing number of workers and residents to a city that is already one of the most densely populated urban areas in the United States; and Whereas, this growth is having direct and indirect impacts on the city’s employment opportunities; and Whereas, the future of Somerville depends upon investing in the talents, skills and education of people to support growth and provide opportunities to residents of all social and economic levels, which is a fundamental goal of the City’s comprehensive plan, SomerVision; Now therefore, the purpose of this Act is to ensure that developers shall contribute a fair share in proportion to the direct and indirect impacts of future development on job creation, training, and retention in the City of Somerville . SECTION 2. Establishment of a Linkage Fee Ordinance for Job Creation and Retention. (A) The City of Somerville may, by ordinance, require the payment of a a job creation and retention linkage fee for any project that (1) requires zoning relief, including without limitation, a special permit, special permit with site plan review, a variance, and/or site plan approval; and (2) contains a single use or combination of uses exceeding a square foot threshold to be determined from time to time by the Board of Aldermen. The ordinance shall specify the dollar amount of the linkage fee; the method by which it shall be increased from time to time; and the types of uses to which it shall apply.

(B) The City shall have the authority to create a distinct and separate revolving fund account into which job creation and retention linkage fees shall be paid, and no such fee shall be paid to the City’s general treasury or used as general revenues subject to the provisions of section fifty-three of chapter forty-four of the General Laws. The funds in such revolving fund account shall be administered by the trustees of a municipal job creation and retention trust established by the Board of Aldermen for the purposes of creating and retaining jobs within the City of Somerville for citizens of the City of Somerville. SECTION 3. This Act shall be effective upon passage. Approved: __________________________ .