The Cass County Council has given the go-ahead for an expansion of The Anderson’s plant on 400 East, south of Logansport.

The council unanimously approved the establishment of a new economic revitalization area for use by the business during Friday’s meeting.

The meeting acted as a public hearing on the development, which is required for ERA designation. There were, however, no public comments.

Council president Ralph Anderson said The Anderson’s approached the county last year about a change to the zoning ordinance for the area to agro-business in order to construct an office building and storage space.

ERA designation is the next step in a proposed $2.3 investment by the firm on the six-acre portion of land.

“They are expanding that plant’s office space but moving their office to a new location on the property next door,” Anderson said “It is an extension of an already zoned ERA.”

ERA designation is intended to encourage development in an area deemed undesirable for usual levels of development, Cass County Planning director Stan Williams said.

According to the findings of a study conducted by the planning department, The Anderson’s proposal to construct a $2.3 million accessory office building and truck scale will “increase efficiency” and “improve the property by adding structures, machinery and equipment.”

In addition, the proposed facility will create two jobs and retain 14 others.

The report also praised The Anderson’s for “continuing to improve the physical appearance of the property” and as a “substantial investor in the county since 1994.”

While the area’s designation as an ERA does not automatically grant The Anderson’s tax abatements on construction projects, the application process is made less complicated, Williams said.

Anderson said the council might have a problem with a tax abatement if only a few jobs are created, but argued that job retention must also be taken into account.

“Sometimes a business needs to expand to retain jobs,” Anderson said. “When modernizing a facility, you may replace employees with electrically operated machines. Building and the ability to expand the physical structure is like creating a job. If they do expand they don’t need to let employees go.”

Anderson added The Anderson’s will approach the council again to confirm the ERA designation and will work with Logansport Economic Development Foundation president Skip Kuker on tax abatements for the property.

The exact figures of the abatements will remain unclear until further details of the construction project and equipment value is received and presented to the council for approval.

Depending on the abatement agreement, the plant would pay a portion of the full taxable figure during the next five or 10 years, beginning with a 100-percent abatement in the first year. The abatement decreases each year until the business is paying taxes on the full assessed value.

Despite the county anticipating a fall in tax levies from the state, Anderson insisted any investment in the area would be a good thing because of the tax revenues that will eventually be generated.

“If they didn’t expand we wouldn’t see any more money. But if they did, the money would be there the following year,” Anderson said. “Abatement is a bad word. It doesn’t mean that it stops taxes coming in. You do get decreases up front, but these decrease every year. We hope that they get to 100 percent and stay there forever.”