The Los Angeles City Council today unanimously approved the hotly-debated affordable housing linkage fee, which will charge developers in Los Angeles anywhere from $1 to $15 per square foot of new construction.

Councilman Jose Huizar, who chairs the Planning Committee, said that the linkage fee will be an essential part of the battle against homelessness in Skid Row and Downtown Los Angeles, especially as state and federal assistance dries up.

According to the Department of City Planning and Housing and Community Investment Department, the fee could raise between $93.7 million and $114.3 million per year, with a tiered structure ranging from $8 to $15 per square foot for residential projects and $3 to $5 for commercial ones, depending on the market value of the neighborhood.

“Our goal is to provide a permanent revenue stream for our affordable housing trust fund,” Huizar said. “We need to take bold steps to fill that trust fund with $100 million every year.”

Not everyone on City Council was as enthused. Councilman Joe Buscaino spoke about how he has tried to convince developers to build housing in San Pedro, but has been told that development simply doesn’t “pencil out.” With the linkage fee, Buscaino said, attracting developments could be more difficult than ever.

But Huizar told reporters before the vote that the fee is lower than what some studies had shown developers could absorb.

“We don’t think that there will be any slowdown in growth. We could have charged more in this fee, but we chose not to, and we did that purposefully so that we have a large buffer there that will not discourage any development,” he said.

In fact, many public speakers at City Council said that they would prefer the charge to be even higher in high market areas, up to $18. Councilmen Mike Bonin and David Ryu changed the motion in response, directing city staff to review the market impacts of increasing the fee to that level within 60 days, meaning that it could soon be even higher.