A city advisory board has recommended that the community grant a tax abatement to API Foils in an effort to attract 31 new jobs to the company’s East Hills Business Park plant.

The city’s Public Incentives Review Committee voted this afternoon 6-1 to recommend that the Lawrence City Commission grant a 10-year, 55 percent tax abatement on a $4.5 million building expansion at API Foils.

The total expansion is about $15.5 to $17 million, depending on how much the equipment costs. But the equipment isn’t part of the abatement because a new state law exempts it from taxation.

“This is a very good application,” said Mayor Mike Amyx, who chairs the Public Incentives Review Committee.

Bill Piercey, vice president of finance for API Foils, said his company’s British-based parent company will now review the project. He said the company also is considering a site in Rahway, N.J., where the company’s U.S. headquarters are. International sites also may be considered, he said.

Kirk McClure, an associate professor in urban design at Kansas University, was the lone vote against the proposal. McClure said the fiscal challenges the community is facing make this the wrong time to grant tax abatements.

The commission is scheduled to hear the tax abatement request at its March 6 meeting. API executives are expected to make a decision on where to build the expansion this summer or fall, Piercey said.