Reporting Problems to the City — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian sorts reports by problem: streets and drainage go to the city Citizen Request Center or the Citizen Request Line, code violations to Code Enforcement in the Sebastian Police Department, and county roads, animals, trash and power to their own agencies.

The table follows the ownership of each asset. Public Works and Engineering lists its divisions as Engineering, Roads and Bridges, Stormwater Utility and Traffic Control, and its repairs as docks, drainage, piers, potholes, roads, sidewalk, signage, striping and tree trimming (City of Sebastian Public Works). Anything that belongs to Indian River County, WM or FPL inside Sebastian is reported to that owner. Last verified: October 10, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.

The Sebastian Citizen Request Center is an online map-based form for requests to the city, backed by a Citizen Request Line at (772) 581-0111 and an email box for residents who prefer to call or write.

The city Comments/Complaints page points residents to its new online Citizen Request Center to submit a request through an interactive web form, and lists the phone line, CitizensRequest@cityofsebastian.org, and a separate address, stormwater.violations@cityofsebastian.org, for reporting stormwater violations (City of Sebastian Comments/Complaints). The How Do I Submit page groups the same choices as Code Enforcement Complaint Form, Concerns and Citizens Request (City of Sebastian).

The request line rings in Public Works. In the city staff directory, 772-581-0111 is listed both as the Citizen's Request Line and as the number for the Stormwater Utilities Division, alongside 772-589-5330 for the City of Sebastian switchboard and 772-589-5537 for the Building Department (City of Sebastian staff directory). Sebastian City Hall, at 1225 Main Street, is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closes daily from noon to 1 p.m.

One caution printed on every city page: under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records, so a Sebastian resident who does not want an address released can phone or write instead.

A Sebastian drainage report lands with the Stormwater Utilities Division, which owns the rear ditches and canals, unless the cause is a neighbor's front-yard swale or driveway pipe, which the city treats as a Code Enforcement matter.

The Roads and Drainage page calls 772-581-0111 the line the city established to call in any drainage concerns, and notes the division keeps over 100 miles of side and rear ditches and about 7.2 miles of canals and waterways (City of Sebastian Roads and Drainage). Those channels carry Sebastian Highlands runoff toward the St. Sebastian River and the Indian River Lagoon.

When the trouble starts on a private lot, the Stormwater FAQ sends the report elsewhere: water backing onto a property or roadway from a neighbor's unmaintained swale or culvert goes to the City of Sebastian Code Enforcement Division at (772) 388-4436 or online (City of Sebastian Stormwater FAQ). The same request line also answers for active construction. The Stonecrop canal project page, covering the 2025 rebuild between Laconia Street and Stonecrop Street, tells residents to send questions to the Citizen Request line and offers updates by text or email (City of Sebastian Stonecrop updates).

A Sebastian code violation is reported to the Code Enforcement Unit of the Sebastian Police Department through its 24 hour hotline, 772-388-4436 option 1, or the Online Complaint Form, with the complainant's name and address.

Messages left on the hotline are followed up by the next business day (Sebastian Police Department, Code Enforcement). The unit covers scattered trash and debris, overgrown grass and weeds, the sign code, noise, parking in the swales, oversized trailers and recreational vehicles, and vacant lots overgrown onto improved properties.

Two rules shape a Sebastian complaint. Florida law prohibits anonymous complaints, so the city must have a name and address before it investigates, and every complaint is subject to the public records law in Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes. For police matters that are not emergencies, the department lists 772-589-5233 at its headquarters, 1201 Main Street.

Pollution reports cross over. The city stormwater website asks anyone who sees an illicit discharge or dumping of pollutants to call Code Enforcement at (772) 388-4436 (City of Sebastian stormwater site), and the Tulip project page states that city staff investigate storm water violation complaints and that violators pay the cost of clean-up and inspections (City of Sebastian).

Problems on county right-of-way inside Sebastian, such as a pothole, clogged culvert or overgrown shoulder along a county road, go to the Indian River County Road and Bridge Division, and animal complaints in Sebastian go to county Animal Control.

The county division maintains bridges, roads, medians, curbs, culverts, drainage ways, sidewalks and bikeways in the unincorporated county and in county right-of-ways within Vero Beach, Sebastian, Fellsmere and Indian River Shores (Indian River County Road and Bridge). It takes calls at (772) 226-3460 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, accepts reports by email, and handles about 220 to 250 service requests a month. The Indian River County site also lists online report links for road potholes, road drainage issues, debris in the roadway, damaged traffic signs and traffic signals that are out.

Animal problems follow the county line too. Indian River County Animal Control tells residents of locations in the county, including Sebastian and Fellsmere, to use its Animal Control Complaint Form, while Vero Beach addresses go to the Vero Beach Police Department (Indian River County Animal Control).

Missed garbage, yard waste or bulk pickups in Sebastian go to WM, the city's hauler since July 1, 2023, and power outages go to Florida Power and Light at 1-800-468-8243.

The City of Sebastian garbage page says universal curbside collection by WM began July 1, 2023 for all City of Sebastian residences, with one weekly collection each for garbage, yard waste and bulk waste, and directs questions to the WM Customer Experience Team at 855-292-6719 (City of Sebastian garbage information). The same page notes that the city took over invoicing from WM beginning October 1, 2024, so billing questions and missed pickups can land in different places.

FPL lists its outage line, 1-800-468-8243, as answered any time, separate from its customer service number of 1-888-988-8249 on weekdays and Saturdays (Florida Power and Light). A downed line or dark street in Sebastian is an FPL report, not a city one.