Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian promotes low impact development and green infrastructure that hold rain on site, such as rain gardens, grassed swales, pervious parking and planted retention ponds, through its Natural Resources Board and a stormwater fee credit.

The city's own definitions come from its LID page. Green Infrastructure covers natural features such as forests and wetlands as well as engineered landscapes that mimic those processes, like a rain garden. Low Impact Development works to preserve the natural landscape and minimize impervious surfaces to keep stormwater close to the source (City of Sebastian LID and GI). The page calls the preservation of existing green infrastructure the first line of defense against climate impacts such as increased storm frequency and intensities.

Sebastian supports the Marine Resources Council of Brevard County in its push for LID techniques, and the city page links the council's Low Impact Living checklists for homeowners and for yard care, along with a Green Infrastructure Map. The page sits under the Natural Resources Board, which champions the Sustainable Sebastian Program adopted by Resolution R-19-30.

Sebastian needs green infrastructure because its 1950s General Development Corporation drainage grid moves runoff quickly to the St. Sebastian River without the storage or treatment modern codes require.

The numbers frame the problem. The City of Sebastian occupies approximately 9,000 acres of the 100,000 acre Sebastian River Watershed and runs along nearly 9 miles of the lower river's eastern and southern banks (City of Sebastian drainage history). Canals, ditches and swales send most of that runoff to the river, which empties into the Indian River Lagoon below the Sebastian riverfront. The street and drainage layout was built for roughly 15,000 single-family home sites, and the city says it lacks the storm water storage or water quality treatment required by present day standards.

Volume is as much the concern as pollution. The St. Johns River and South Florida water management districts named the large freshwater inputs from the watershed, and their effect on salinity in the receiving waters, as the principal concern for the St. Sebastian River. The same page notes that the seagrass beds just south of the river mouth have become more fragmented over time. That is why the stated Sebastian objective is practices that increase on-site stormwater retention and infiltration, not just faster pipes.

The state's description of green stormwater infrastructure matches that goal. According to FDEP, GSI retains rainfall near its source instead of directing it to a centralized pond or treatment system (Florida GSI). FDEP also cautions that in urban areas GSI should either be sized for flooding events or be coupled with traditional gray infrastructure, a point that applies in the flat, low Sebastian Highlands, where the city still pipes and armors its worst ditches.

Sebastian's clearest built example is the Tulip Drive project in the central Sebastian Highlands, which paired a wet retention pond with pervious parking, a shallow curb and grass swales.

The money came from a federal Clean Water Act program. In December 2015, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced $176,840 in Section 319 grant funding for the Tulip Drive Stormwater Improvement Project, part of the city's Stormwater Master Plan, with the city matching $172,540 (FDEP news release, Dec. 9, 2015). The design called for pervious surface angle parking that directs stormwater into an adjacent grassy field, and a new two-foot wide shallow curb that guides runoff from Tulip Drive back into the grass swale system near the intersection of Tulip and Persian Lane.

The city lists the project as completed 12/3/2016 (City of Sebastian Tulip page). Runoff from surrounding yards and the ballfields is held in the wet pond so nutrients settle and percolate instead of flowing straight toward the St. Sebastian River. City staff monitored inflow and outflow under an EPA approved Quality Assurance Project Plan, sampling total nitrogen, total phosphorus and suspended solids over 7 to 10 rain events generally between 0.20 and 1.5 inches.

The pond then became a planting project. From May 2022 to May 2023, an Indian River Lagoon Council cost-share grant funded habitat restoration at Tulip Pond, with UF/IFAS Extension of Indian River County helping the city apply Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles. A Phase 2 volunteer planting on National Arbor Day, April 26, 2024, added companion plants plus shoreline and littoral zone plants, with volunteers parking at the Barber Street Sports Complex. Reduce Stormwater Runoff and Protect the Waterfront are two of the 9 Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles published by UF/IFAS.

Newer Sebastian projects mix green and gray. The Riviera and Gardenia project in Sebastian Highlands Unit 5 replaces an eroding ditch with reinforced concrete pipe but places a shallow swale on top to collect nearby surface water (City of Sebastian).

A non-residential property in Sebastian can cut its Stormwater Utility Fee by up to 50 percent by building and maintaining qualifying green infrastructure or LID practices under credit policy R-19-03.

The credit is limited to non-residential owners. The LID page states that properties may be eligible for up to a 50% reduction in the Stormwater Utility Fee on the November tax bill, and that notices are mailed every year to non-residential properties in the city that may qualify (City of Sebastian). The legal basis is Ordinance No. O-19-02 and Resolution No. R-19-03 (City of Sebastian stormwater site).

Applications go to the Stormwater Department at the Public Works Facility, 505 Airport Drive West, and must be in by no later than June 1st to count for that year (City of Sebastian credit application). Owners without a district permit can instead describe alternative design that reduces stormwater volume and improves water quality, including Low Impact Design. Failure to operate or maintain the facility is grounds for forfeiting the credit. Last verified: October 10, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.

Sebastian homeowners do not qualify for the fee credit, but the city points them to its LID page, the Low Impact Living checklists and their own front yard swale.

The swale is the green infrastructure most Sebastian lots already have. The Stormwater page states that each homeowner is responsible for mowing and cleaning their own front yard swale and driveway culvert, and any side yard swale (City of Sebastian Stormwater). A grassed swale in the Highlands that is kept open lets water soak in before it reaches the canal network that runs to the Elkcam Canal and Collier Creek.

For more, the city held an LID community workshop on December 7, 2021, and keeps its slides and the Marine Resources Council checklists on the LID page. The 2023 Stormwater Master Plan documents, posted with appendices on the NPDES permit and the Central Indian River Lagoon Basin Management Action Plan, show where city projects are headed (City of Sebastian). The Natural Resources Board meets the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers at Sebastian City Hall, 1225 Main Street.