ILLINOIS (From news reports) -- Elgin took another step toward becoming home to what has been dubbed as "America's largest corrugated manufacturer" as the city council unanimously supported an incentive package to lure Atlantic Packaging to build its new facility near I-90 and Randall Road.

The council as a committee of the whole voted 9-0 to approve $500,000 in permit and building fee waivers to entice Atlantic Packaging to choose Elgin over a competing location in Wisconsin. The company makes corrugated boards and boxes from recycled paper.

A final vote from the council will come in two weeks.

The proposed $30 million development will be built on a vacant 38-acre property at 2601 Mason Road, just south of the interstate and west of Randall Road. The planning and zoning commission approved plans for construction of a 488,450-square-foot building there last week.

The company has said the facility would be one of the two largest of its kind in North America. Atlantic Packaging is building a similar facility in Canada.

The building would include 33 loading docks and have a 6-foot-high ornamental fence and landscaping to screen the truck parking areas from public view and adjacent properties.

The city said the new development would create 120 new hourly jobs plus 20 to 40 salaried positions.

Pat Leggett of StandFast Group in Carol Stream, a subsidiary of Atlantic Packaging, will be the operating manager of the new facility and told the council he hopes to avoid the staffing problems many companies are currently suffering.

"We're going to be competitive and we're going to provide an opportunity for people that have knowledge to work and learn and grow," he said, adding that he hopes to attract workers specifically from Elgin.

"Who doesn't want to be close to home and work for a state-of-the-art, super company?"