Lewiston council approves 50-year lease for youth transitional housing village at East End Park amid neighborhood dispute

The Lewiston City Council on Dec. 23 approved Resolution 2024-50 to lease a third-acre parcel commonly called East End Park to the LC Valley Youth Resource Center Inc. for a transitional housing village for young adults. The lease authorizes a 50-year ground lease at a rent of $100 per year, with options to extend, and limits use to a transitional housing village tied to an approved conditional use permit (CUP 24-3).

Why it matters: The proposal drew large turnout and sharply divided public comment: neighbors and nearby businesses raised concerns about community outreach, stormwater drainage and long-term use of the city parcel, while resource-center staff, board members and residents who had used the center urged the council to approve the lease to prevent young adults from aging out of care with no housing.

Michelle King, president of the LC Valley Youth Resource Center, told the council the center provided overnight shelter for 28 different young people this year and “865 nights of shelter,” and said many of the center’s interventions come in the two weeks before a youth turns 18. King described the proposed village as 12 tiny-house cottages with shared kitchen and program space, intended mainly for 18-to-20-year-olds who are in high school, exiting foster care or currently served by the center. “The village is 12 tiny house cottages,” King said in her presentation, adding the layout preserves a city stormwater easement the group has informally called “the moat.”

City Attorney Jennifer…