Victor Hart Sr. Community Enhancement Complex (Gifford Park)

The Victor Hart Sr. Community Enhancement Complex is the county park formerly called Gifford Community Park, at 4715 43rd Avenue in Gifford, phone (772) 226-1875.

Indian River County titles its page Victor Hart Sr. Community Enhancement Complex (Formerly Gifford Community Park), lists the address as 4715 43rd Ave, Vero Beach, FL 32960, and gives (772) 226-1875 as the phone (Indian River County, Victor Hart Sr. complex page). The description says the complex, formally known as Gifford Park, is centrally located north of the Vero Beach Airport. The county's Parks and Beaches list carries the same name and phone under V (Indian River County Parks and Beaches list).

The 2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan describes the site as a 40 acre campus at the southwest corner of 43rd Avenue and 49th Street, holding Gifford Park, the Gifford Youth Activities Center, and the Gifford Aquatic Center (Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014, recreation facilities). The plan calls the Gifford Park Campus a Countywide resource located in Gifford and says its location ensures that the majority of its users are from Gifford.

Last verified: October 22, 2026, against the county complex page and parks list, the 2014 Gifford plan, Chapter 10 of the comprehensive plan and the adopted 2025/2026 budget book.

The county page prints two different hours for the Victor Hart Sr. complex: Daily 7:00am-9:30pm in its hours line, and 7:00am until sunset in its description.

Both lines appear on the same Indian River County page (Victor Hart Sr. complex page, hours). Near the top, under Hours of Operation, the page reads Daily 7:00am-9:30pm. In the description further down, the page states Hours are from 7:00am until sunset. Both are reproduced here as printed for the 43rd Avenue park.

The page also lists phone numbers for the buildings on the Gifford campus: Gifford Aquatic Center 772 226-1175, Gifford Youth Achievement Center 772 794-1005, and Indian River County Parks and Recreation 772 226-1780 (useful information on the county page). The pool's own hours and admission are covered in the county aquatic centers guide.

According to the county amenity list, the Victor Hart Sr. complex holds a football field and 2 baseball fields, tennis and basketball courts (two of each, plus a tennis wall), sand volleyball, the Gifford Pool, playgrounds and a walking trail.

The table copies the county's amenity list for the Gifford complex as printed (Victor Hart Sr. complex amenities). The description adds that the park consists of playground facilities, aquatic center, library, youth activity center, football and baseball fields, and it names the Gifford Aquatic Center and the Youth Achievement Center as part of the complex.

The 2014 Gifford plan counted a similar set on the 43rd Avenue campus: 2 basketball courts, 2 baseball/softball fields, 2 tennis courts, 1 volleyball court, 1 physical fitness course, 7 picnic tables, 4 picnic pavilions, 1 playground, outdoor grills, foot trails, and a community center (Gifford plan campus inventory). It describes the Youth Activities Center as containing classrooms, computers, a gymnasium/auditorium, a library, and other facilities, and the Aquatic Center as having two pools, one for adults and one for children.

County documents give three sizes for the Gifford Park campus: 38.96 acres on the park page, 40 acres or over 40 acres in the 2014 Gifford plan, and 35 acres in the comprehensive plan table.

The county park page lists Park Size: 38.96 Acres (Victor Hart Sr. complex page). The 2014 Gifford plan describes a 40 acre campus in its facilities inventory and, in its recreation assessment, says the Gifford Park Campus, at over 40 acres in size, is a Countywide resource (Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014). Table 10.5 of Chapter 10 of the comprehensive plan lists Gifford Park as county owned, classification C (community park), with 35 in the acreage column (Gifford Park row, recreation element Table 10.5).

Chapter 10 also explains the classification: it says Gifford Park is classified as community park and in this capacity provides residents of Gifford access to recreational facilities, and its summary of parks in the unincorporated county lists Community Park 1 (Chapter 10, park classifications). The Gifford plan adds that this park and its facilities exceed County standards for Community Parks.

The county's 2025/2026 budget lists replacing the playground at the Victor Hart Sr. complex as a Parks Division goal, following field, lighting and scoreboard work recorded in the 2014 Gifford plan.

Among the 2025/2026 Goals and Objectives of the Parks Division, the adopted budget includes replacing playgrounds at the Victor Hart Sr Community Enhancement Complex, in a goal shared with West Wabasso Park (Parks Division goals, county budget 2025/2026). The 2014 Gifford plan records that in January 2014 the county approved two 20 by 30 foot sheds, lighting along the entrance drive, a replacement little league scoreboard, replacement dugouts and relocated softball fencing for Gifford Park (Gifford plan, January 2014 improvements).

Objective 13 of the plan carried the campus as Action 13.2, improving the football, senior league and little league fields by 2016, with Actions 13.4 and 13.5 for ongoing ball field and playground upkeep in Gifford park (Gifford plan Objective 13). The plan notes that capital costs for recreation facilities in Gifford are funded through the county's one cent sales tax, with maintenance from general fund revenues.

The county's 2014 Gifford plan describes Victor Hart, Sr. as a well known Gifford community leader and civil rights activist who moved to Gifford from the Bahamas in 1952, while the county park page carries his name without explaining it.

The history of Gifford in Appendix E of the plan says Hart would soon start a local chapter of the NAACP after arriving, led demonstrations in front of Vero Beach businesses, and in 1961 co-founded the Gifford Progressive Civic League with others (Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014, Appendix E). The same appendix says their efforts slowly paid off, and gives as one example that Gifford did not have water or sewer until the mid 1970s.

The Progressive Civic League of Gifford had a role in the 2014 plan: the plan lists it among the groups holding monthly meetings in Gifford and assigns it partner roles in the park actions under Objective 13 (Gifford plan, community groups and Objective 13). The county park page records the renaming in its title, Victor Hart Sr. Community Enhancement Complex (Formerly Gifford Community Park), without giving a date (county park page title).