Sebastian, Florida: Town Guide

Sebastian is an Indian River County city of 17.4 square miles of land, reached by car from Interstate 95 exit 156 at County Road 512, Sebastian Boulevard.

The Census Bureau's 2024 place gazetteer lists Sebastian city with 17.4 square miles of land and 0.817 square miles of water (Census gazetteer).

The usual road in is Interstate 95: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service directions to Pelican Island start with exit 156 to County Road 512, Sebastian Boulevard (Pelican Island directions). The same directions reach the barrier island by way of 90th Avenue and County Road 510 to A1A, then 3.8 miles north to Jungle Trail.

Small planes have their own door. Sebastian Municipal Airport (FAA designator X26) sits on the northwest side of the City of Sebastian, between Vero Beach and Melbourne, and has two runways, the longest 4,000 feet (Sebastian Municipal Airport). A May 2024 image on the city airport page shows Runway 05-23 newly repaved. The terminal is at 202 Airport Drive East, reception 772-228-7001, and the airport grounds also hold the city-owned Sebastian Municipal Golf Course. The city describes X26 as a general aviation field serving mainly small personal and corporate aircraft.

Sebastian Inlet sits between Brevard and Indian River counties, and the Sebastian Inlet District, created by special act of the Florida Legislature in 1919, keeps the channel open, and its five commissioners are split three from Brevard County and two from Indian River County (Sebastian Inlet District). The Sebastian transportation guides on the CR 512 corridor, the US 1 corridor and airports near Sebastian go further on roads and flights.

Sebastian had an estimated 26,262 residents with a median age of 58.2 in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2020-2024 5-year estimates (ACS 2024 DP05 table).

Age is the defining number. In that ACS 2020-2024 5-year release, 36.8 percent of Sebastian residents were 65 or older (ACS 2024 DP05 table for Sebastian). Median household income was $69,409 (ACS 2024 DP03 table), and workers 16 and over averaged a 31.1 minute trip to work.

Sebastian is a city of owners. Of its occupied homes, 85.2 percent were owner occupied in the same survey, and the median value of an owner-occupied home was $317,000 (ACS 2024 DP04 table). The city counted 12,976 housing units, 11,586 of them occupied, and median gross rent was $1,451 a month.

Every figure above is a five-year ACS estimate for 2020 through 2024, not a 2024 snapshot, and each carries a margin of error in the Census tables. The Sebastian demographics section breaks these numbers down further, with guides on household income, seasonal residents, migration and new residents, and veterans.

A five-member Sebastian City Council, led in 2026 by Mayor Fred Jones and Vice Mayor Bob McPartlan, sets city policy, and City Manager Brian Benton runs day-to-day operations from Sebastian City Hall at 1225 Main Street.

Sebastian council members serve two-year terms in nonpartisan, at-large elections, and the mayor and vice mayor are elected from among the members of each newly seated council at a special meeting after every election (City Council page). The other three seats are held by Christopher Nunn, Ed Dodd and Sherrie Matthews. Regular meetings fall on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month and air live on Comcast Channel 25 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99, with rebroadcasts from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.

Sebastian City Hall keeps hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, but closes daily for lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m. (City of Sebastian) so a Sebastian permit or records errand is best timed outside that hour. The main number is 772-589-5330, the Citizen's Request Line for service problems is 772-581-0111, and the City Manager's office is 772-388-8203 (city directory). The Sebastian Police Department sits next door at 1201 Main Street, non-emergency line 772-589-5233 (Sebastian Police Department).

Two seats are on the ballot in even-numbered years and three in odd years. For the 2026 general election, early voting runs October 19 to 31 with Sebastian City Hall as one of the early voting sites, and Election Day is November 3, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Indian River County Supervisor of Elections). Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.

Many services come from Indian River County rather than the city. The Indian River County Board of County Commissioners lists its contact address as 1801 27th Street, Vero Beach, main line 772-567-8000 (Indian River County commission). The Sebastian government section covers each office in depth, including the officials, city hall, meetings and Indian River County Commission guides, and the civic engagement section explains speaking at council meetings and voting precincts.

Most visits to Sebastian center on two public lands: Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first federal bird reservation (1903), and Sebastian Inlet State Park on the barrier island.

On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt set aside Pelican Island in the Indian River Lagoon as the first federal bird reservation, giving birth to the National Wildlife Refuge System (Pelican Island history). Pelican Island itself has shrunk from 5.5 acres to roughly 3 acres. The refuge's visitor trails sit on the Historic Jungle Trail, 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet; the Service manages about seven miles of trails, including the three-quarter-mile Centennial Trail at 11455 Jungle Trail, open sunrise to sunset every day (Pelican Island visit page). The refuge office phone is 772-581-5557.

Sebastian Inlet State Park charges $8 per vehicle for two to eight people, $4 for a single-occupant vehicle, and $2 for walkers and cyclists, and the park stays open 24 hours a day (Sebastian Inlet State Park hours and fees). The McLarty Museum inside the Sebastian Inlet park opens Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the park's own line is 772-589-9659.

One practical warning: the same Sebastian Inlet State Park fee page still carries a July 2023 notice saying both the Sebastian Fishing Museum and the McLarty Museum open seven days a week, a few lines above the current Wednesday to Sunday schedule for McLarty (state park hours page). Calling the park before a Monday or Tuesday museum trip settles it.

The Sebastian parks section has a guide for each of these places, including the Pelican Island refuge, Sebastian Inlet State Park and Riverview Park guides; the Sebastian recreation section covers fishing, boat ramps and beaches; the landmarks section covers the McLarty museum and the inlet jetties; and the events and history sections follow the Clambake, the 1715 Fleet and Pelican Island's 1903 story.

The largest change near Sebastian is the Florida Department of Transportation's replacement of the State Road A1A bridge over Sebastian Inlet, a project estimated at $102 million with construction scheduled from spring 2026 to fall 2031.

FDOT let the Sebastian Inlet bridge contract on December 3, 2025, and lists its purpose as fixing structural and functional deficiencies in the old span and closing a gap for bicyclists and pedestrians (FDOT project page). All bridge improvements sit within existing FDOT right of way, two-way traffic will be maintained across the inlet at all times, and temporary lane closures will be required during non-peak hours. Anyone who crosses A1A at the inlet to fish, surf or reach the state park will be driving through a work zone for several years.

Access to Sebastian Inlet State Park also shifted. Since November 12, 2025, the South Ranger Station follows standard park hours of 8 a.m. to sunset, while the North Ranger Station stays open around the clock; after-hours entry on the south side is limited to registered campers and annual pass holders with an after-hours permit (state park notice).

At City Hall, 2026 is an even-numbered year, so two Sebastian City Council seats are on the annual November ballot (City Council page), and the newly seated council then elects the next mayor and vice mayor. The Sebastian future section, including the Sebastian 2050 and climate adaptation guides, and the real estate section's new developments and market trends guides track what comes next.

Hurricane evacuation zones, routes and public shelters for Sebastian come from Indian River County Emergency Management at 4225 43rd Avenue, Vero Beach (772-226-3900), while the city posts its own storm updates on a Tropical Weather Information page.

Indian River County Emergency Management runs the Alert Indian River emergency notification system and publishes evacuation zones, routes and the public shelter list, including the pet evacuation shelter and the special needs shelter program (Indian River County Emergency Management). The City of Sebastian's storm page points residents to the Citizens Request Line, 772-581-0111, and notes the line is not staffed around the clock; power outages go to FPL at 1-800-468-8249 (City of Sebastian tropical weather page). The City of Sebastian government channel is AT&T U-verse Channel 99.

Flood insurance in Sebastian is discounted through the city's floodplain program. FEMA lists the City of Sebastian (community 120123) in the National Flood Insurance Program at Community Rating System class 6, worth a 20 percent premium discount inside the special flood hazard area and 10 percent outside it (FEMA NFIP community status). The flood insurance rate maps in effect for Sebastian date from January 26, 2023, so a Sebastian flood zone read from a map older than that may no longer apply.

The Sebastian safety section holds the step-by-step guides on hurricane evacuation zones, hurricane shelters, sandbags and storm debris, flood risk zones and the flood insurance CRS discount, and the Sebastian history section has storm-by-storm guides from Frances and Jeanne in 2004 to Nicole in 2022 and Milton in 2024.

Each of the Sebastian sections listed on this page goes deeper than this profile, and the table below maps the common Sebastian questions to the key fact and the section that answers it.

Sebastian also has sections on schools, utilities, weather by month, wildlife, environment and the Indian River Lagoon, gardening and native plants, the economy and industries, and practical guides such as moving to Sebastian and retiring in Sebastian.