PALM BAY, Fla. — A group of Brevard County residents are worried their quiet nature view will soon be obstructed by a communications tower.

  • APC Towers planning to install comms. tower near Palm Bay homes
  • Residents worried tower will obstruct community's "peace and tranquility"
  • Another neighbor worried tower will drive down property value

Brian Rice says he enjoys the nature view from his house, but a letter he received has him worried things are about to change.

The letter states APC Towers is planning to file an application to install a communications tower on a vacant property. The problem? It’s surrounded by houses.

If the communication tower goes up, it will affect both sides of the street — on one side, residents will see the tower when they step out the door, and on the other side, they will see the tower from their backyard.

Rice says he is worried property values will be affected and says he is planning on selling his house one day. He’s concerned how many possible buyers will be deterred from buying the home with a cell phone tower right across his street.

“When I read it, I envisioned this big tower. The reason why we moved here because of the peace and tranquility,” Rice explained.

Although the company has yet to file an application to rezone the residential land, an APC Tower spokesperson says if all goes as planned, they are planning on leasing the property to build the cell phone tower, costing around $450,000 dollars.

Although cell phone service is pretty spotty, residents tell Spectrum News 13 it's a small price to pay for the view.

Another resident Anthony Burke-Hall explains that he's not too fond of the idea of a communications tower either, because it will be a distracting view from his front porch.

“Maybe if they put it down the road like a couple of miles, I'd be fine with that,” Burke-Hall says.

On Thursday, March 28 at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn on Malabar Road, APC Towers will be there to answer residents’ questions.

APC Towers tell Spectrum News 13, the tower location is strategically selected to provide higher signal to the areas with bad service.