LA PORTE, Ind. -- The La Porte City Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously voted to approve a height variance for 110 acres in the Thomas Rose Industrial Park for a planned data center on Tuesday.

The petitioner, La Porte One LLC, has at least one data center in Northwest Indiana already and several other data centers in general.

The area is already zoned industrial, so the developer doesn't need rezoning approval, like some other recently proposed data centers in Northern Indiana.

La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody said he and his administration are very supportive of this plan and that t's exactly where they'd want a data center to be built.

Officials say the height variance was needed because most of the 110 acres are M1 Industrial zoning with a maximum height of buildings at 45 feet.

The southern portion is M2 Industrial with a maximum of 60 feet.

The petitioner said the land has a steep setback so the buildings will appear much smaller.