Yachats developer of affordable housing finishes second Florence project — this time with a needed daycare center

By WILL YURMAN/West of the Tunnel

FLORENCE — Layne Morrill of Yachats is a retired tax and business attorney. As a kid, he wanted to be an architect. “But my art teacher said you can’t draw worth a crap,” he said.

So the law it was.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, built a summer home in Yachats 20 years ago and eventually retired there. And in his retirement, he has taken on the role of a developer of affordable housing, first in Yachats, and now in Florence.

The 32-unit Elm Park Apartments and the Elm Park Early Learning Center in Florence are his current projects. The apartment complex is open and nearly fully rented. The early learning center is on track to open Sept. 8, the first day of school in Florence, providing daycare and childcare for around 80 children.

Describing the project is a bit like pulling apart Russian nesting dolls.

The Yachats developer’s two companies worked with the city of Florence, a local non-profit, the federal government, state agencies, banks, and foundations to build the subsidized apartments and adjacent childcare center on Greenwood Street.

It is the inevitable complexity of private-public collaboration.

“My practice in tax and real estate transactions and business transactions really gave me the tools over 40, 45 years to be able to do the development part of it and put together the financing and the contractor, and get it all assembled and see that it gets built,” Morrill said during an interview. “It just kind of came together that maybe I could do something and that would be enjoyable and beneficial at the same time. This is my feel-good retirement job.”

Morrill’s company, Our Coastal Village completed its first Florence project, the 24-unit Oak Manor Apartments, in 2024. In Yachats, it developed the 21-unit Fisterra Townhome apartments, which opened in 2019, the seven-unit Aqua Vista Square apartments, completed in 2013, and years earlier sold the site that was then developed into the 25-unit Fisterra Gardens.

As his Oak Manor project was wrapping up, Morrill approached the city of Florence with the idea of developing low-cost apartments on the Greenwood Street property.

The city received a state grant, Morrill said, to build out the streets, sewer and storm drainage system. Morrill then got to work raising money for both the apartments and early learning center.

The two projects are physically side by side, but developed as separate entities.

Our Coastal Village developed the apartments at a cost of about $15 million. A $11.8 million 30-year interest-free loan from the state provided the bulk of the funding. Banner Bank provided a $2 million loan, and donations from foundations and Morrill’s own investment made up the rest.

Meanwhile, the early learning center was developed by Chestnut Management, also owned by Morrill.

“It’s a separate company doing the early learning center,” he said. “It’s a separate parcel of land. It’s a separate owner entity. It’s a separate architect. Separate contractor.”

A Russian doll of its own.

Low-income apartments are exempt from state prevailing wage laws. This meant the apartments would cost less to build, if the construction was kept separate from the childcare center, Morrill said.

Funding for the $4.2 million childcare center came from grants from the state and area foundations.

Apartments and day care centers

The apartment complex has a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments. Some 350 people expressed interest in renting one of the 32 units when they first became available, Morrill said.

Every apartment comes with a full-size washer and dryer. There is a community room, raised garden beds, and a greenhouse. Children are already playing on the outdoor playground, and tomatoes are growing in the greenhouse.

Rents are subsidized on a sliding scale based on income that can range from 30 percent to 60 percent of the Siuslaw region average. A three-bedroom apartment costs between $620 and $995 per month, depending on income. A one-bedroom costs between $449 and $719 a month.

There are about 642 children five years old and younger in the Siuslaw region, and only 148 available childcare slots, according to an August 2025 report from the city of Florence. And childcare is expensive, costing local parents $984 per month on average, according to the report.

The Elm Park Early Learning Center will house four classrooms with room for nearly 80 children. Chestnut Management will be the landlord, for now, renting out two rooms to Head Start of Lane County and two community-run classrooms to Siuslaw Childcare Friends, a non-profit created to support the project and families.

Siuslaw Childcare Friends has contracted with Stepping Stones Center for Early Learning, a local childcare provider operated by Jenn Lukashev, to run the two community rooms.

Head Start provides support to low-income children and families. Children who qualify will be able to attend Head Start for free and the organization already runs a facility near Siuslaw Elementary School.

Head Start of Lane County wanted to expand its presence in the Florence area, said operations director Patrick DeCelles. Finding an affordable space was key. And that was what Morrill’s building brought to the table.

The two new classrooms will add 32 openings for families in the area.

Because construction was funded through grants and donations, there is no mortgage. That makes it financially viable to operate childcare.

“We provide different types of services, such as dental care, medical, mental health, food insecurities,” said Charleen Strauch, the executive director of Head Start of Lane County. “Helping people that are experiencing homelessness. It’s much more than just, ‘Let’s come to school and learn our ABCs.’ It’s come to school. We’ll provide you a safe place.”

Stepping Stones Center for Early Learning will run the other two classrooms in the center, and will target families earning above the federal poverty level and have room for up to 38 children, spread across two rooms and ages six weeks to five years.

The goal is to make Florence more inviting and accessible to families with children.

“We believe in the success of children,” said Jenn Lukashev, Stepping Stones’ owner. “And we believe in the success of their families. And we believe in the successes of our community, and we’ve all got to do it together in order for that to happen. I think we all have that responsibility to each other for that.”

Retirement on the horizon?

Morrill believes he’s built something that will serve the Florence-area community for decades. Head Start and Stepping Stones will pay the operating costs to run the building — taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities — but that’s all. The landlord will get no money.

“The landlord is not in it for money. The landlord is in it for making that happen,” Morrill said, speaking of himself.

Beyond that, at 75, he is looking past his own time in the project. His wife has told him it’s time to quit, and this may be his last development project. The plan is for Head Start to purchase the building and become the landlord, while continuing to rent to a community provider through Siuslaw Childcare Friends.

And Morrill is making plans to turn over the apartment complex to Northwest Housing Alternatives out of Portland, “the largest nonprofit developer operator of affordable housing in Oregon,” he said.

He’s enjoyed the work.

“It’s amazing and satisfying. Working with all the professionals from engineers, architects, contractors, subcontractors. Most of them are really great people and try to figure out what you want, what you need, and get it done the way you want it, he said. “But most satisfying is to see people move in and the expressions on their faces.”

• Will Yurman is the founder and editor of  West of the Tunnel, a local news website devoted to stories about the Florence area.