ATLANTA (AP) — The city of Atlanta's economic development arm has voted to approve issuing more than $200 million in bonds to help finance a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

WSB-TV reports (http://bit.ly/12liMBW) that Invest Atlanta voted to approve the bonds Thursday morning. One board member, Julian Bene, opposed the bonds, saying the stadium would create "surprisingly few" jobs.

Approval from Invest Atlanta sets in motion the process of preparing bonds to sell to investors and approving various agreements between the city, the team and the Georgia World Congress Center.

The deal calls for city hotel-motel taxes to cover about 20 percent of the expected $1 billion construction costs.

Negotiations to buy the land for the stadium just south of the existing Georgia Dome are ongoing.