Indian River County Beach Preservation Plan

The Beach Preservation Plan is Indian River County's long-term strategy for monitoring and managing its 22.4 miles of Atlantic coastline, and its 2026 Update was formally adopted on October 6, 2026.

The county's Beach Preservation Plan page describes the plan as a science-based strategy that outlines how the county monitors areas most vulnerable to erosion, secures reliable sand resources and prioritizes strategic beach and dune nourishment (Indian River County Beach Preservation Plan page). It calls the plan an adaptive living document that is updated periodically, and it gives the Board Approval line as Formally adopted October 6, 2026. The cover of the full Beach Preservation Plan 2026 Update shown on the page is dated JULY 2026, and the page says the PDF is the document adopted by the Board of County Commissioners.

Indian River County publishes the plan with nine lettered appendices, each listed on the county page (Beach Preservation Plan appendices).

Last verified: October 22, 2026, against the county Beach Preservation Plan, Beach Management Sectors and Restoration Projects pages, the Coastal Engineering pages of the adopted 2025/2026 county budget, and sections 161.101 and 161.161 of the Florida Statutes.

The Board of County Commissioners first approved a Beach Preservation Plan in 1998/99, updated it in 2019, and adopted the 2026 Update on October 6, 2026.

The adopted 2025/2026 county budget states that in 1998/99 the BCC approved a Beach Preservation Plan to combat continued erosion, that the most recent BCC approved update was in 2019, and that the plan proposes upland sand mining in sectors where erosion has caused the most damage (Indian River County Annual Budget 2025/2026, capital program). The same budget lists Finalize the 2024 update to the County's Beach Preservation Plan among the Coastal Engineering Division's 2025/2026 Goals and Objectives. The county page now presents the finished document as the Beach Preservation Plan 2026 Update, adopted October 6, 2026 (county plan page).

The program behind the plan is older than the first plan. The budget's statement of function for Coastal Engineering, Fund 128, says the Beach Management Program has been active since 1988 and that since 2005 the Division has implemented a Habitat Conservation Plan to protect and monitor nesting sea turtles along the Indian River County coastline (Coastal Engineering Fund 128). The division also manages the county's artificial reef program.

As of 2025, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection classed 19.3 of Indian River County's 22.4 miles of shoreline as critically eroded, with long segments south of Sebastian Inlet, in northern Vero Beach and in the south county.

The county's Beach Management Sectors page says eight beach management sectors split the coastline, with lines set by factors that include jurisdictional boundaries, coastal conditions and features, the history of nourishment and of shoreline change, upland development and important environmental resources (Indian River County Beach Management Sectors). It quotes the FDEP definition of a critically eroded area as a stretch of shoreline eroded to the point that upland development, recreation, wildlife habitat or important cultural resources are threatened or already lost, and notes that the definition can include gaps between eroded segments when needed for continuity of management.

The sectors are mapped against 119 FDEP established range monuments, spaced roughly every 1,000 feet along the Atlantic coast of Indian River County and called R-Monuments. The county lists the critically eroded segments by monument range (critically eroded segments).

For the north segment, the county page adds that the Sebastian Inlet District has conducted sand bypassing within this stretch of beach (north segment note). The adopted budget records a related 2024/2025 accomplishment: a completed Memorandum of Understanding between the County and the Sebastian Inlet District for Coordination of Supplemental Downdrift Nourishment and Related Coastal Activities (Coastal Engineering accomplishments).

Indian River County's recommended strategy is beach and dune nourishment, placing beach compatible sand on critically eroded beaches and rebuilding dunes, with monitoring before and after each project.

The county's Restoration Projects page names beach and dune nourishment as the recommended strategy for Indian River County beaches and describes it as among the most studied and most used ways of protecting Florida shorelines (Indian River County Restoration Projects). In the county's words, the projects help shield upland areas against storm surge and waves and slow erosion, and the nourished dunes give sea turtles and shorebirds habitat. Before and after any project, extensive pre- and post-construction monitoring is conducted so that natural resources and nesting activities are not negatively impacted.

State law frames the program. Section 161.101 says the state, through the Department of Environmental Protection, shall determine those beaches which are critically eroded and may authorize appropriations to pay up to 75 percent of the actual costs for restoring and nourishing a critically eroded beach, while declaring that such a program should not be accomplished without a commitment of local funds (section 161.101, Florida Statutes). Section 161.161 directs the department to maintain a comprehensive long-term beach management plan for the state's critically eroded beaches, including a critically eroded beaches report and a 3-year work plan (section 161.161, Florida Statutes). The county budget, for its part, records FDEP cost-share reimbursement for the Indian River County Sector 3 dune restoration (see the completed projects below).

The Indian River County Completed Projects list shows the Sector 5 restoration after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, finished in March 2026, and the county budget lists the Sector 4 dune renourishment as a 2024/2025 accomplishment.

According to the county Restoration Projects page, Sector 5 received 115,901 cubic yards of beach compatible sand along with 117,500 native dune plants to rebuild protective features lost during the 2022 storms; Tracking Station Beach Park, 800 46th Pl, Vero Beach, was one of the primary construction access points (Sector 5 project, Indian River County). The adopted budget lists the Sector 4 Hurricanes Ian and Nicole Dune Renourishment as having placed approximately 116,970 CY of beach sand and planted 147,788 native dune plants over 2.9 miles of shoreline, and records $3.7m awarded by FDEP in cost-share reimbursement for the Sector 3 dune restoration (Coastal Engineering 2024/2025 accomplishments).

The indicators above are copied from the Coastal Engineering page of the Indian River County budget (Fund 128 performance indicators).

The tourist development tax is the local source the county budget names: of the five percent tourist tax Indian River County levies on hotel rooms, the first 2 3/4 cents pay for the Beach Preservation Project.

The adopted budget states that Indian River County currently levies a five percent tourist tax on hotel rooms, that the first 2 3/4 cents pay for capital and operating expenses associated with the Beach Preservation Project, that the second 2 cents go to tourism development and that the remaining 1/4 cent funds the Jackie Robinson Training Complex (county budget, tourist development taxes). The budget also notes that the Tourist Tax rate was raised from 4% to 5% in the general election in November 2024, a change that appropriated additional funding to beach restoration and tourism development.

Grants and state cost share make up the rest of Indian River County's beach funding. The budget's capital program says the county will maximize available FEMA grants as well as state and federal cost share for renourishment, and the Coastal Engineering goals include securing additional grants for beach construction and post-construction monitoring (Beach Preservation Program, capital improvements). Under section 161.101, state appropriations may cover up to 75 percent of the actual costs of restoring a critically eroded beach (section 161.101). The county page asks residents with questions about the Beach Preservation Plan to contact the Coastal Engineering staff by email (plan contact).