South Brevard, Florida: Regional Guide

South Brevard, on Digital Towns, is the regional layer for the southern end of Brevard County: the city of Palm Bay, the towns of Malabar and Grant-Valkaria, and the unincorporated communities of Micco and Barefoot Bay along U.S. 1 and the Indian River Lagoon.

South Brevard is not a government. Each of its places is governed separately, but all five sit in Brevard County Commission District 3, which the county says contains Melbourne, Melbourne Beach, Palm Bay, Grant, Grant-Valkaria, Malabar, West Melbourne, Micco and Barefoot Bay (Brevard County Commission District 3). The South Brevard pages cover what those places share; each town guide covers its own services.

Size varies widely across South Brevard. The Census Bureau 2024 place gazetteer gives Palm Bay 86.672 square miles of land, Grant-Valkaria 27.227, Malabar 10.711 and the Micco census designated place 7.604 (Census gazetteer). Barefoot Bay has no separate entry in that gazetteer, so its residents are not counted as a place of their own there.

Interstate 95 crosses South Brevard at Malabar Road and Palm Bay Road (County Road 516), two of the interchanges whose ramps FDOT is repaving in its I-95 project from south of Malabar Road to Fiske Boulevard (FDOT I-95 resurfacing). U.S. 1, which FDOT lists as State Road 5, runs through Grant-Valkaria (FDOT U.S. 1 at Valkaria Road).

About 147,000 people live in the four South Brevard places the Census Bureau measures, led by Palm Bay with an estimated 130,132 residents in the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates (ACS 2024 DP05, Palm Bay).

The other South Brevard places are small. The same ACS 2020-2024 release estimates Malabar at 3,066 residents with a median age of 53.1 (ACS 2024 DP05, Malabar), Grant-Valkaria at 4,921 with a median age of 59.7 (ACS 2024 DP05, Grant-Valkaria), and the Micco census designated place at 8,896 with a median age of 68.2 (ACS 2024 DP05, Micco CDP). Palm Bay itself is younger, with a median age of 41.0.

For scale, Brevard County as a whole had an estimated 632,780 residents and a median age of 46.7 in the same ACS 2020-2024 survey (ACS 2024 DP05, Brevard County), so the South Brevard places hold a bit under a quarter of the county's people, most of them in Palm Bay.

The age gap is the defining South Brevard number: a Micco median of 68.2 against a Palm Bay median of 41.0. The South Brevard demographics section, including the guide to commuting across the county line, goes further.

Palm Bay, Malabar and Grant-Valkaria each run their own city or town hall, while Micco and Barefoot Bay are unincorporated and look to the Brevard County Commission, represented in District 3 by Commissioner Kim Adkinson.

The City of Palm Bay lists its contact address as 120 Malabar Road, phone 321-952-3400 (City of Palm Bay). The Town of Malabar is at 2725 Malabar Road, phone 321-727-7764 (Town of Malabar). Grant-Valkaria Town Hall is at 1449 Valkaria Road, phone 321-951-1380, open 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closed Fridays (Town of Grant-Valkaria).

Micco and Barefoot Bay do not appear on the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections list of municipalities, which names Grant-Valkaria, Malabar, Palm Bay and the other Brevard cities; the same office lists the Barefoot Bay Recreation District among the county's special districts (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections). The elections office keeps offices at 450 Cogan Drive SE in Palm Bay and 1515 Sarno Road in Melbourne, and its main line is 321-290-8683.

For county matters in Micco, Barefoot Bay and the rest of South Brevard, the District 3 office is at 1311 E. New Haven Avenue in Melbourne, phone 321-633-2075 (District 3 office). The Brevard County Board of County Commissioners sits at 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way in Viera, and the county's general line is 321-633-2000 (Brevard County). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Brevard County website.

South Brevard's public lands run from the lagoon to the scrub: Brevard County names the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, Sebastian Inlet State Park, Malabar Scrub Sanctuary and Turkey Creek Sanctuary among the notable places of District 3.

The District 3 list also includes Doc Ehrhart Sanctuary, the Mullet Creek Islands, Valkaria Airport, Spessard Holland Golf Course and The Habitat Golf Course (Brevard County District 3).

Sebastian Inlet State Park is open 24 hours a day year round and charges $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people, $4 for a vehicle with one occupant, and $2 for pedestrians and bicyclists (Sebastian Inlet State Park hours and fees). For campers arriving after dark the park asks for a call that day to 772-589-9659 to get the gate combination. A practical South Brevard tip from the same page: since November 12, 2025 the South Ranger Station keeps standard 8 a.m. to sunset hours, with after-hours entry there only for registered campers or annual pass holders with an after-hours permit, while the North Ranger Station stays open 24 hours for all visitors.

Town events fill the calendar too. The Town of Malabar lists its Malabar Fallfest for October 24, 2026 (Town of Malabar calendar), and the Grant-Valkaria and Micco guides cover the Grant Seafood Festival and the lagoon boat landings in more detail.

The largest South Brevard project is FDOT's $63.3 million resurfacing of 24 miles of I-95 from south of Malabar Road to north of Fiske Boulevard, estimated to finish in spring 2027.

The I-95 work began in early 2025, lists Melbourne and Palm Bay as its cities, and repaves the ramps at Malabar Road and Palm Bay Road along with interchanges farther north (FDOT project 448977-1).

On U.S. 1 in Grant-Valkaria, FDOT is designing a new traffic signal with lighting at Valkaria Road, with construction estimated at $1.3 million and bids scheduled for August 3, 2027 (FDOT project 454250-1). Grant-Valkaria also holds its next town election on November 3, 2026 (Grant-Valkaria Town Council).

Household bills are changing in Palm Bay: the city has been moving residents billed quarterly for Republic Services and stormwater to monthly billing; its notice set the last quarterly bill for April 23, 2026 and the first monthly bill for July 23, 2026 (City of Palm Bay notice). Questions go to Palm Bay Utilities at 321-952-3420.

At the county level, District 3 Commissioner Kim Adkinson, whose district takes in Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant-Valkaria, Micco and Barefoot Bay, reports that at the October 6, 2026 commission meeting she brought forward an item directing SOIRL staff to prepare a Rain Ready program for the 2027 plan update (District 3 News and Views, October 2026).

Every South Brevard community, from Palm Bay to Barefoot Bay, gets evacuation orders and storm alerts from Brevard County Emergency Management at 1751 Huntington Lane in Rockledge, phone 321-637-6670, through the AlertBrevard system.

AlertBrevard delivers phone calls, text messages or emails about evacuation orders, shelter-in-place orders, boil-water notices and weather warnings based on the address a resident provides, and it is also used by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and local police and utility departments (Brevard County Emergency Management). The county gives a home, a business or an elderly parent's home as examples of addresses to register, which suits South Brevard families with relatives in Micco or Barefoot Bay.

Flood insurance discounts differ across South Brevard. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program list for Brevard County shows Palm Bay at Community Rating System class 7, unincorporated Brevard County, which covers Micco and Barefoot Bay, at class 8 with a 10 percent discount inside the special flood hazard area and 5 percent outside, and no class for Malabar or Grant-Valkaria (FEMA NFIP community status, Brevard County). All four share a current effective flood map dated January 29, 2021.

The South Brevard sections on Digital Towns hold four regional guides, and the table below maps common South Brevard questions to the key fact and the guide that covers it.

Beyond the four regional guides, each South Brevard place has its own town guide: Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant-Valkaria, Micco and Barefoot Bay, plus the Brevard County guides for property taxes, courts, elections and schools.