Fellsmere, Florida: Town Guide

Fellsmere is a city in western Indian River County, and drivers reach it from Interstate 95 at the County Road 512 interchange, where the city's own Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve and Welcome Center stands.

The welcome center sits northwest of the I-95 and CR 512 interchange at 11090 CR 512 (City of Fellsmere). Fellsmere City Hall, the place to start for city business, is at 22 S. Orange Street, Fellsmere, FL 32948 (City of Fellsmere).

Fellsmere covers far more ground than its population suggests. The Census Bureau's 2024 gazetteer gives Fellsmere city 57.579 square miles of land and 0.209 square miles of water (Census gazetteer). That is more than 57 square miles of land for fewer than 5,000 residents.

St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park lists its address as 1000 Buffer Preserve Drive, Fellsmere, FL 32948, and is open 8 a.m. to sunset 365 days a year with no day-use fee (Florida State Parks). The Fellsmere parks guide covers the city preserve, and the history section explains how the town grew.

Fellsmere had an estimated 4,953 residents in the Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, a young and largely Hispanic city with a median age of 32.0.

Fellsmere's population skews young and Hispanic. In that ACS 2020-2024 release, 76.3 percent of Fellsmere residents were Hispanic or Latino of any race, 30.6 percent were under 18, and only 8.8 percent were 65 or older (ACS 2024 DP05 for Fellsmere). Most residents speak Spanish at home: 68.2 percent of Fellsmere residents age 5 and over speak Spanish at home (ACS 2024 DP02).

Median household income in Fellsmere was $55,893, workers averaged a 31.9 minute commute, and 9.1 percent of employed residents worked in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (ACS 2024 DP03). Fellsmere counted 1,445 housing units, 1,258 of them occupied; 74.0 percent were owner occupied, the median owner-occupied value was $175,400 and median gross rent was $1,158 (ACS 2024 DP04).

These are five-year survey averages for 2020 through 2024, each with a margin of error, not a 2024 head count. The Fellsmere population and people guide, the income, poverty and jobs guide and the housing and home values guide take each figure further.

A five-member Fellsmere City Council led by Mayor Jessica Salgado sets policy, and City Manager Armando Martinez runs daily operations from Fellsmere City Hall on South Orange Street.

The council roster lists Mayor Jessica Salgado, Vice Mayor Fernando Herrera, Mayor Pro Tem Inocensia Hernandez, and Council Members Ben Baker and Shayla Macias, with a council office line of (772) 646-6301 (Fellsmere City Council). The next two council meetings listed on the city page are Thursday, October 15 and Thursday, November 19, 2026, both at 7 p.m.

Fellsmere has used a manager form of government since a 2005 charter amendment, and the City Manager reports directly to the council, prepares the budget and also serves as executive director of the Community Redevelopment Agency (City of Fellsmere Administration). The manager's office is reached at (772) 646-6303 and keeps hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, closed daily for lunch from noon to 1 p.m., so a Fellsmere errand is best planned outside that hour. The general city number is (772) 571-1616 (City of Fellsmere).

Fellsmere runs its own police department, at 25 S. Cypress Street, with Chief of Police Scott Newsom at 772-571-1360 and officers on duty around the clock (Fellsmere Police Department). The department posts its bias-based profiling resolution in both English and Spanish.

Voting is run by the Indian River County Supervisor of Elections. For the November 3, 2026 general election, early voting runs October 19 to 31, and none of the four listed early voting sites is in Fellsmere; the list includes Sebastian City Hall at 1225 Main Street (Indian River County Supervisor of Elections). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of Fellsmere website. The Fellsmere government section covers the council and elections, the city budget and millage, and the police department.

The City of Fellsmere points visitors to its roughly 86-acre Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve at CR 512 and I-95, the free St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, and Blue Cypress Lake.

The Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve and Welcome Center opened on November 3, 2016, on about 86 acres the city acquired in 2008 with the Florida Communities Trust and Indian River County (City of Fellsmere). It opens sunrise to sunset, allows leashed pets, has a playground and picnic area, gives access to the Trans Florida Central Rail Trail, and lists bicycling, hiking and equestrian riding among its activities. The Florida Tech Challenge Course, with high ropes and team courses, operates inside the Fellsmere preserve.

St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park offers more than 60 miles of multi-use trails for walkers, riders and cyclists, more than 23 natural communities and over 70 listed plant and animal species (Florida State Parks). Boats launch outside the preserve, but two canoe landings on the St. Sebastian River lead into the trail system. The park phone is 321-953-5005.

The City of Fellsmere bills itself as the Frog Leg Capital of the World and says its Frog Leg Festival holds two Guinness World Records, for the most frog legs served in one business day and the largest frog leg festival (City of Fellsmere tourism page). The same page calls Blue Cypress Lake one of the world's largest osprey nesting sites and says Fellsmere has one of the top fishing spots in the world for bass and crappie. The Fellsmere landmarks section covers the Marian Fell Library, the Old Fellsmere School and the historic district, and the parks section covers the trailhead preserve.

Fellsmere has a Comprehensive Plan Review Workshop on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 6 p.m., and the state preserve east of town is under a road project with weekday closures through November 5, 2026.

The comprehensive plan is the city's long-range rulebook for land use, so the October 21 workshop on the Fellsmere City Council calendar is the session to watch for anyone following growth on the city's large land area (Fellsmere City Council calendar). It falls between council meetings on October 15 and November 19, 2026.

A road improvement project at St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park runs from October 5 to November 5, 2026, in three phases, and there is no weekday access from the Babcock entrance during the work (Florida State Parks closure notice). The schedule closes the stretch from I-95 to the Manatee Overlook Monday through Thursday from October 5, adds I-95 to the volunteer village from October 16, and adds the main gate to the volunteer village from October 28. The park says the Babcock entrance stays accessible on weekends unless otherwise noted.

On flood insurance, FEMA's Community Status Book shows the City of Fellsmere at Community Rating System class 7 with a rating effective April 1, 2026 (FEMA NFIP community status). The Fellsmere utilities guide on water and sewer and the budget and millage guide track the city services that change with each budget year.

Hurricane alerts, evacuation zones and public shelters for Fellsmere come from Indian River County Emergency Management, 4225 43rd Ave, Vero Beach, phone (772) 226-3900.

The county office runs the Alert Indian River emergency notification system and publishes the evacuation zones and routes, the public shelter list and map, the pet evacuation shelter and the special needs shelter program for every Indian River County community, Fellsmere included (Indian River County Emergency Management). Signing up for Alert Indian River before a storm season is the simplest step for a Fellsmere household.

The City of Fellsmere is its own flood insurance community. FEMA lists Fellsmere (community 120120) as a participant in the National Flood Insurance Program in the regular program since October 18, 1993, with a current effective flood map dated January 26, 2023 (FEMA NFIP community status). Its class 7 rating gives policies a 15 percent discount inside the special flood hazard area and 5 percent outside it.

Each Fellsmere question has its own guide: thirteen guides in nine sections cover the city's people, government, history, landmarks, parks, schools, utilities, economy and housing.

The Fellsmere history guide tells the longer story behind the city's firsts, and the county guides for Indian River County cover taxes, courts and countywide services that Fellsmere City Hall does not handle.