Lawrence has cleared the first hurdle in landing a project to add 31 jobs at Lawrence’s API Foils plant in the East Hills Business Park.

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

“This is a very good application,” said Mayor Mike Amyx, who is the committee’s chairman.

According to a cost-benefit analysis conducted by Kansas University’s Institute for Policy and Social Research, the community will receive $6.26 in benefits for every $1 in property tax that is abated on the project. That significantly exceeded the city’s requirement of at least $1.25 in benefits for every dollar of tax abated.

Bill Piercey, vice president of finance for API Foils, said his company’s British-based parent company would review the project. He said the company also is considering a site in Rahway, N.J., where it has its U.S. headquarters.

International sites also may be considered for the plant, which makes hot stamping foils that are used to put the shine on a variety of packaging products.

“This certainly goes a long way, but we’re not over all the hurdles yet,” Piercey said. “Anytime you’re talking to a global company, they are going to really challenge us to compete from a cost perspective with facilities in Asia, South America and elsewhere.”

The project would add 31 jobs over three years. In the first year, the project would add four jobs with salaries ranging between $30,000 and $80,000. In the second year, six jobs would be added, with salaries ranging from $30,000 to $45,000. In the third year, 21 positions would be added, with salaries ranging from $30,000 to $45,000.

All the positions will pay above the Lawrence living wage of $10.73 per hour, with the lowest wage being $14.42 per hour plus benefits.

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 faced made this the wrong time to grant tax abatements.

He also expressed concerns that the company had not always fully reported required information to the city related to the plant’s previous tax abatement, which was granted in 1995.

The City Commission is scheduled to hear the tax abatement request at its March 6 meeting. API executives are expected to decide where to build the expansion this summer or fall, Piercey said.