07/15/2014 (5) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014 0 N ➢ Fire and Emergency Medical Services In 2009, the County built Fire/EMS station #12 on 491h Street in the Gifford area. Also, two fire stations are located just south and north of Gifford. Those three stations provide redundancy such that if one station is responding to a call then another nearby station can respond to a new call in the Gifford area. Fire service standards are based on criteria established by the Insurance Services Office (ISO). ISO also provides ratings for local areas based on compliance with its standards. For planning purposes, the standards include a 5 mile distance to a manned Fire/EMS station and the availability of a fire hydrant within 500 feet of commercial development and 1,000 feet of residential development. Ratings are on a scale of 1 to 10, with a rating of 1 being the highest. Being within 5 miles of a Fire/EMS station, most developed areas of the County (including all of Gifford) are rated a 4/6 by ISO. Response times for an area with a rating of 4 are usually less than 8 minutes. In contrast, most areas outside the urban service area are rated 9 or 10 by ISO. Therefore, Gifford has a good ISO rating like other urban areas in the eastern portion of the County. In an effort to improve the delivery of timely emergency services, on May 30, 2014 Emergency Services moved the Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance from Fire Station 5 (6580 Old Dixie Highway, Winter Beach) to Fire Station 12 (3620 49th Street, Vero Beach) on a trial basis to determine if the change should be made permanent. Based on the results of this trial service change, ALS ambulance service may be made permanent at the Gifford Station. ➢ Recreation The County's comprehensive plan calls for 6.61 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. At that rate, Gifford (with a population of just over 5,800 residents) should have approximately 38 acres of public parks. In fact, Gifford has 44 acres of improved park land and additional areas are planned for recreational improvements. The Gifford Park Campus, at over 40 acres in size, is a Countywide resource located in Gifford. While it serves the entire County, its location within Gifford ensures that the majority of its users are from Gifford. This park and its facilities exceed County standards for Community Parks. To maintain that high level of service, minor improvements and continued maintenance of specific facilities are needed and are being addressed by current park improvements (see Appendix B) as well as future planned improvements. Neighborhood parks are defined as parks which are 2 to 5 acres in size, containing improvements such as swings, benches, tot lots, fitness trails, and picnic areas. Like most areas in the unincorporated County, park development in Gifford has focused on Community Parks, rather than Neighborhood Parks. Gifford has two 2-acre Neighborhood Parks (Hosie-Schumann Park and Martin Luther King Jr. Park). Hosie-Schumann park is located next to the W.E. Geoffreys Subdivision, which is separated from the rest of Community Development Indian River County 56