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Longstanding Batavia Access Toy Drive faces relocation after TIF‑funded demolition; council weighs help and alternatives
Summary
City staff told council the toy‑drive's donated, city‑adjacent storage will be lost this year because of required remediation and demolition in a TIF area; council and community members discussed donated storage units, partnering nonprofits, transition funding and helping the organizers form a 501(c)(3).
Laura Newman briefed the Committee of the Whole that the city must remove an underground storage tank and demolish a building in TIF 3 this year, a step that will displace the Batavia Access Toy Drive’s long‑standing donated space. The property remediation is tied to TIF funding and the city said $200,000 was provided in escrow by a buyer for remediation; the toy drive’s current storage space sits on or next to those properties and will not be available after demolition.
Newman said the toy drive organizers have been made aware of the timetable and that they will likely need a new space by mid‑year; staff estimated renting a comparable 7,000‑sq‑ft space could cost in the neighborhood of $200,000 per year and that most nonprofits do not have that kind of unused space. She said the city is assisting the toy drive with steps to incorporate as a 501(c)(3) and with outreach to identify donated or low‑cost storage alternatives.
Councilmembers and members of the public proposed a range of short‑term and transitional responses: asking local storage‑facility operators to donate summer storage, soliciting private vacant retail space for October–December staging, helping the Baileys and other volunteers form a nonprofit board and fundraising, and identifying charitable partners such as county toys‑for‑tots efforts to redistribute inventory rather than allow waste. Donald Cruz, who volunteers with county Toys for Tots, suggested storage units donated for summer months and using donated retail space for the October–December staging period.
Some councilmembers opposed long‑term use of general‑fund tax dollars to pay rent for the toy drive; others urged staff to provide legal and administrative assistance to set up a nonprofit and to search for donated storage so the program can continue. Several aldermen urged a transition plan and earlier lead time to avoid last‑minute disposal of donated materials; staff agreed to look at demolition schedule flexibility and to continue outreach to potential private‑sector donors.
Residents and civic leaders who spoke at the meeting framed the toy drive as a decades‑long local institution (volunteer families and civic clubs have administered the program since the 1950s) and urged the city to help save the program’s core operations and goodwill. Council directed staff to continue working with organizers, explore short‑term donated storage options, and provide legal/organizational assistance toward forming a formal nonprofit entity.
