Sebastian Stormwater Park Guide

The Sebastian Stormwater Park entrance and parking are on the south side of Englar Drive, between Barber Street and Schumann Drive, at an address the city lists as 297 Englar Drive.

The city's facility page now names the site the Stormwater Treatment Area and says that, in a cooperative effort with the St. John's River Water Management District, it was dedicated to the City to promote storm-water treatment (City of Sebastian). The same site still appears as Stormwater Park on the Sebastian Parks and Recreation list of parks from H through Y (City of Sebastian). Both names point to the same gate on Englar Drive.

An educational display at the trail entrance on Englar Drive explains storm water runoff and how the park treats it, and the plan assigns trails, benches and picnic tables to Sebastian Parks and Recreation (SJRWMD 2009 plan).

The park sits within the city limits about 2 miles west of the Indian River Lagoon, according to the 2009 management plan (SJRWMD land management plan). The city lists no entry fee and no posted hours on its facility page.

The City of Sebastian estimates the Stormwater Park removes 80 percent of total nitrogen, 56 percent of total phosphorus and 79 percent of sediments from runoff in a watershed that drains to the St. Sebastian River.

The Stormwater Treatment Area will remove an estimated 80% of the total nitrogen and 56% of total phosphorous, both from fertilizers, the city states, along with 79% of sediments and suspended solids (City of Sebastian). The city's reason is blunt: untreated storm water is the leading source of water pollution in many waterways, including the Indian River Lagoon. The 2009 plan puts the scale at an approximate 1400-acre watershed of Sebastian streets and lots, with treated water passing to the St. Sebastian River and on to the lagoon (SJRWMD).

Those percentages are written in the future tense, as design estimates, and no published monitoring report for the Englar Drive system turned up in the city or district pages checked on October 14, 2026. The money trail is older. A Florida Senate community budget request submitted on January 31, 2000 by the St. Johns River Water Management District sought $1,000,000 from the state toward a total cost of $3,348,000 for construction of stormwater management system within the City of Sebastian (Florida Senate).

Under the 2009 management plan, leashed dogs, hiking and bicycling on designated trails are allowed at the Sebastian Stormwater Park, while boating, swimming and all fishing are prohibited.

On the Englar Drive trails the plan allows dogs, cats and similar pets, but not horses or livestock, provided that such animals must be leashed and in owners control, at all times (SJRWMD 2009 plan). Hiking covers jogging and bird watching, and bicycling is allowed at the storm water park but only on designated trails or areas. Motorized vehicles and boats of any kind are barred, and swimming or diving is prohibited due to the contaminated nature of the water.

Fishing is the rule visitors ask about most. The 2009 Sebastian plan says all fishing is prohibited on the property due to the contaminated nature of the water, and that special use authorizations for fishing may be considered by the City only for scientific, resource management or investigational purposes (SJRWMD 2009 plan). The district's posted plan is still that 2009 edition, so Sebastian Parks and Recreation at 772-228-7054 is the office to ask about any later change (City of Sebastian).

The St. Johns River Water Management District owns the Sebastian Stormwater Park land, bought in 2000, and the City of Sebastian runs it under a cooperative agreement signed on January 20, 2004.

The 2009 plan traces the land to lots first planned for houses. The district bought it from a developer in two pieces for the Sebastian park, Lot 1 containing 144.49 +/- acres in May of 2000 and Lot 2 at 30.60 acres in December of 2000 (SJRWMD 2009 plan). The Sebastian cooperative agreement with the district was signed January 20, 2004, expired January 19, 2009, and auto renews in five-year increments.

Day-to-day work is split between two city departments. The system consists of four stormwater treatment facilities, a pump station, and numerous water control structures, operated by the City of Sebastian Public Works Division, while Parks and Recreation handles mowing and invasive plant removal. The district's posted plan is still the March 2009 edition, and the 2002 scrub-jay management plan it cites covered surveys, vegetation monitoring and nuisance species control for a five-year period expiring in 2008, so the published document is long past its own review window.

The Sebastian Stormwater Park trails pass oak hammock, pine flatwoods, scrub and herbaceous wetland, and the city says three threatened species live in the park.

Nature trails at this park showcase several important habitat types, including oak hammocks, pine flatwoods, scrub and herbaceous wetlands, according to the City of Sebastian, which adds that three threatened species are among the park's residents (City of Sebastian). The 2009 plan counts 18.54 +/- acres of scrub habitat on the Englar Drive site (SJRWMD).

Bird watchers have specific targets. The plan records that the Southeastern American Kestrel has been noted to occupy the Southern Mixed Shrub Wetland in the Sebastian park, with a family of three red-shouldered hawks in the transition area beside it, and it lists the Florida scrub jay among the protected birds on the site. A family of river otters and several migratory bird species were also noted using the wetland and surface waters of the Sebastian storm water park, and the wetlands serve reptiles and amphibians.

The Sebastian Stormwater Park is the middle link of a wildlife corridor, with the county's Sebastian Scrub Conservation Area to the southeast and Sebastian Harbor Preserve to the north.

Indian River County describes its 10-acre Schumann Drive tract as part of a larger wildlife corridor that includes the 179 acre Sebastian Stormwater Park (owned by the St. John's River Water Management District) (Indian River County). On its Harbor Preserve page the county instead says that preserve shares its southern boundary with the 166-acre Sebastian Stormwater Park (Indian River County).

That leaves four published sizes for one Sebastian park: 163 acres of trails from the city, about 175 acres in the 2009 plan, and 179 and 166 acres on two county pages. The district purchase records in the plan, 144.49 plus 30.60 acres less one acre exchanged in 2006, line up best with the plan's figure. The Digital Towns guide to the Sebastian scrub conservation areas covers the county tracts on either side.