Spirit of Sebastian

Spirit of Sebastian is a Planned Unit Development in the City of Sebastian, built in numbered pods on land between Old Dixie Highway and Del Monte Road, just east of the Sebastian Highlands.

The resolution title for its first two pods is specific. Resolution R-20-29 covered 77.99 acres and 208 lots located east of Sebastian Highlands Unit 15, north of the South Moon Under subdivision, west of Old Dixie Highway and south of vacant industrial land (City of Sebastian council minutes, December 9, 2020). Later staff reports place each new phase between Old Dixie Highway and Del Monte Road (staff report, November 4, 2024).

A PUD lets a developer and the city agree on a master plan instead of applying a standard zoning district lot by lot. In Sebastian's case the conceptual plan for Spirit of Sebastian was approved by the City Council in 2018, and the 2020 preliminary plat was described at the hearing as the next step of the planned unit development process (council minutes, December 9, 2020, page 8). After the preliminary plat, each Spirit of Sebastian pod returns to the council for its own final plat.

The term agrihood shows up in the Spirit of Sebastian record. When the Pod 2 final plat came up on June 14, 2023, Council Member Dodd noted the community is consistent with the county's vision by including an agrihood (council minutes, June 14, 2023).

Three Spirit of Sebastian pods have gone to the Sebastian City Council for final plats: Pod 2, approved in June 2023, Pod 1B-1, now recorded in the county plat books, and Pod 1B-2, on the June 25, 2025 council agenda.

Pod 2 was pulled from the consent agenda of the June 14, 2023 Sebastian council meeting so the public could hear a short summary. The applicant's representative said this was the first phase of pod two and that construction was more than 90% complete; the council then approved Resolution R-23-14 by a 5-0 vote (council minutes, June 14, 2023). The item had been listed as R-23-14, Subdivision Final Plat, Spirit of Sebastian PUD Pod 2 (consent agenda listing).

Pod 1B-1 followed. The staff report says its 34 lots sit on White Pelican Lane between Spirit Boulevard and Sabal Way, and that the roadway, stormwater and utilities serving them were built, completed and platted as part of Pod 2 (R-24-71 staff report). Pod 1B-2 added 59 residential lots and Recreation Tract #2 on Jetty Lane and Crows Nest Court, again between Spirit Boulevard and Sabal Way (R-25-21 staff report).

Indian River County's subdivision list, revised January 10, 2025, carries Spirit of Sebastian PUD Pod 2 in Plat Book 33, page 1, and Pod 1B-1 in Plat Book 33, page 77 (Indian River County subdivision list, page 51). Pod 1B-2 came to the council after that revision.

Spirit of Sebastian uses three lot widths, 38, 55 and 65 feet, with minimum lot areas of 4,750, 6,875 and 8,125 square feet on lots at least 125 feet deep.

Those standards appear in a June 4, 2026 Sebastian Planning and Zoning Commission packet, where a newer project's application set its own proposal beside the approved project, Spirit of Sebastian (P&Z packet, June 4, 2026, page 175). The areas follow from the dimensions: 38 times 125 is 4,750 square feet, 55 times 125 is 6,875, and 65 times 125 is 8,125.

These are Spirit of Sebastian PUD standards, set through the project approval rather than read from a standard Sebastian zoning district table, so a newer applicant in the city used them as a benchmark for its own lot sizes.

Spirit of Sebastian was planned in 2020 with entrances on Del Monte Road and Old Dixie Highway, gets sewer through an Indian River County lift station, and was described in 2020 as the first Sebastian subdivision served by gas lines.

At the 2020 hearing, staff explained two code adjustments. The code requires two entrances; one on Del Monte and one on Old Dixie would serve construction of Pods 1 and 2, with one becoming emergency access until Pod 3 adds an entrance on Bailey Drive. Cul-de-sac roads longer than the code allows were offset by an access tract for each cul-de-sac that an emergency vehicle can use (council minutes, December 9, 2020).

The same minutes record outside road work. The city asked the developer to keep working with Indian River County on Old Dixie Highway and, failing that, wanted bike lanes on S. Wimbrow Drive north of CR 512 during construction of Pod 4. The resolution also required a license to encroach for a bridge over the canal and a developer's agreement for improvements to Del Monte Road, where the developer kept the sidewalk and curb and gutter but dropped off-site landscaping after residents raised concerns (council minutes).

Homeowners carry part of the upkeep. Staff said that to keep homeowner association fees down, owners maintain the landscaping easements (council minutes). Sewer is a county system: the 2026 septic-to-sewer feasibility study lists lift station 1371, spelled Sprit of Sebastian in the table, as owned by Indian River County and installed in 2023 (feasibility study, page 24).

Spirit of Sebastian sidewalks are phased with a bond. Condition J of the approval, as amended by Resolution R-22-06, requires a bond of 110% of the cost of unfinished sidewalk for unbuilt lots before the next phase's final plat. For Pod 1B-1, four Pod 2 lots had no building permit application, and the developer posted a cash bond of $8,989.70 (R-24-71 staff report).

When Sebastian approved the first two Spirit of Sebastian pods in 2020, staff estimated about $170,000 a year in property taxes at buildout, $25,000 a year in stormwater fees and a one-time $204,000 recreational impact fee.

Those figures came from an impact facilities statement for Pods 1 and 2, presented with a note that the plan had been presented to the Indian River School District to ensure school capacity (council minutes, December 9, 2020). They are projections from 2020, not collected totals.

Bailey Drive is the street named in the 2020 minutes for the future Pod 3 entrance (council minutes, December 9, 2020). Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council meetings on later pods are held in City Council Chambers, 1225 Main Street (P&Z agenda, June 4, 2026). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.