By Jeni Brock Steele
           special to the News

           St. Lucie County's Board of Adjustment toppled a communications tower
           Wednesday by unanimously rejecting a variance needed for its construction.

           Aero Communications, an Orlando-based company, requested a variance to
           build a 125-foot tower to provide cellular phone service to Nextel
           Communications.

           After two hours of discussion, the board rejected its employees'
           recommendation to approve the tower at 5014 N. U.S. 1, a small piece of
           property the company would have leased from Affordable Storage.

           The variance was needed for construction because the nearest residence is
           125 feet from the proposed tower. A county ordinance prohibits towers
           within 750 feet of a residence.

           Barbara Guettler Debus' residence is 262 feet away and she said her Old
           Dixie Highway house has been in her family for four generations. She told
           board members the tower did not fit in with the property where her family
           raised and still cares for many native fruit trees.

           Bill and Jeanne Hearn live across the street from the proposed site on
           Tozour Road. The Hearns live within 500 feet of the tower.

           Jeanne Hearn told board members she also represented the interests of her
           82-year-old mother, Mildred Tozour, who lives next door to them.

           Tozour wrote the county's Planning and Zoning Commission of her opposition
           in May, when Aero Communications's petition for the tower went before the
           Planning and Zoning Commission. A public hearing was scheduled before the
           Planning and Zoning Commission in June, but was postponed so the Adjustment
           Board could rule on the variance.

           Tozour told the Planning and Zoning Commission about a similar radio tower
           that fell across her property last year.

           Jane Morrell, another nearby resident, said if that tower had fallen to the
           east it would have interfered with U.S. 1 traffic.

           Board members were not given the package of information by county staff
           that included seven letters of opposition and a letter from Frank Spain,
           owner of Microwave Service Corp., a company with a 400-foot tower less than
           two miles north of the proposed site.

           Spain's tower already accommodates the service of BellSouth, the FBI and
           the U.S. Coast Guard, and he notified county staff there was space
           available on his tower to service Aero Communications needs.

           Adjustment Board members asked Planning Manager David Kelly why they did
           not receive the comments from opponents of the tower.

           ''We furnished it to the Planning and Zoning Commission, but didn't think
           it would be necessary at this meeting,'' Kelly said.

           Board member Bob Bangert challenged Kelly on his decision to recommend the
           petition to the board.

           ''It is your job to protect, enhance and make possible development to
           ensure that the wants of this community are fulfilled,'' he said. ''There
           are times when it is my feeling that you feel like your job is not
           community development, but economic development.''

           Board member Howard Pancoast agreed.

           ''I just have to wonder why you all are saying "yes,' when the community is
           saying "no,''' he said.

           Kelly said he thought approving the tower was in the best interests of the
           entire community, and not just the neighborhood affected.