Near East Area Renewal asks for retroactive charitable exemption for daycare; board grants back to 2023

Near East Area Renewal and its partner Shepherd Community Center asked the Marion County appeals board to grant a charitable-use property-tax exemption for a parcel that houses a nonprofit early-learning center and to make that exemption retroactive to the year Shepherd began operations in late 2020.

“I'm the executive director of Near East Area Renewal,” Emily Scott told the board, explaining her organization's role in redeveloping the former IPS school and in leasing the daycare space to Shepherd. Shepherd’s representative said the center had been operating daycare since August 2020 and serves roughly 50–70 children from four weeks to four years old. Staff noted the property had a prior 2021 exemption filing that was denied because the building was described as a 'white box' and unoccupied at the time of the filing. Board members discussed statutory limits on retroactive refunds and payment-cycle timing; after discussion the board moved to grant an exemption to 2023 (the maximum practical window given payment cycles and administrative constraints) and instructed staff and the auditor on how to apply the adjustment for affected tax payments.