A cell tower permit denied by the planning and zoning agency could still be built next to a private cemetery in a St. Johns County neighborhood after an appeal.

Residents near Wildwood Drive were worried the tower would be an eyesore and lower their home values.

“We recently bought this house like three years ago. If we’d known they were going to, we never even would have considered this, buying this house,” Scott Ammons, a resident, said.

Mary Lou Storen, who lived nearby, felt the same.

“I don’t think it’s right,” she said. “My phone works good.”

An orange sign near the site showed the public notice of the proposed 150-foot cell phone tower on land that also includes Hughes Cemetery.

Ammons added, “The property value would go down; that neighborhood property value will go down. The

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