ONEONTA — Oneonta Common Council voted unanimously to approve the first stage of the city’s proposed rail yard on Tuesday.

Developers are looking to create a new industrial/commercial business park that would create new jobs for Oneonta.

Along with creating jobs, the rail yards would provide additional markets for Otsego County, and add to the local tax base.

Developers are currently laying the ground work for the completion of the projects.

The Oneonta rail yard will involve the construction of structures, parking, and a bridge giving access to the site.

The rail yard project was presented last year when developers purchased 80 acres of land for economic development purposes.

Developers says the location of the rail yard is important because of the rail access.

“You can put a very large facility right up against the rail,” Delaware Engineering Planner Kevin Schwenzfeier said. “Like a bottling facility or a grain facility or whatever. And that ease of transportation access is very desirable. Especially in this day and age. It’d be nice to have some larger manufacturing type of facilities in the area because it’ll help retain some people here or give people different opportunities for jobs.”

Developers say they are interested in the project due to how close the location is to I-88 and Oneonta’s downtown.

Officials say the location also provides access to water, sewer, and natural gas.

Every step of the process needs to be approved by the common council. After getting the approval to move forward, developers are already getting started on the next phase of the project.