Your Community Guide · Ash, Brunswick County, North Carolina
McLamb Farms
A 155-acre Meritage Homes community going up off No. 5 School Road, just west of
Brunswick Plantation and about ten minutes from the Calabash waterfront. Two home series, a second
phase of duplexes still to come, and a county file most listing sites never opened.
What makes this location interesting is the balance. You are far enough off the
beach corridor to come home to a neighborhood instead of vacation traffic, but close enough that
an afternoon at Sunset Beach or dinner on the Calabash waterfront can still be an ordinary
Tuesday. For buyers trying to move toward the coast without paying for a front-row seat to it,
that is the part of McLamb Farms that is easiest to understand once you stand here.
631homes approved across both phases
447single-family homes of that total
184duplex units in the McLamb Station phase
156acres, with 40.66 committed to open space
~10 minto the Calabash seafood waterfront
Unit counts, acreage and open-space figures from Brunswick County Planning Board
records (September 2023 approval; June 2025 expansion). Conceptual approval is not approval to construct.
“I wanted to create these Community Guides because every neighborhood along our coast
has its own personality, history, and little details that you simply can’t see in a
listing search. Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with many of the builders who helped
bring these communities to life, and I’ve watched them grow from the ground up. Along the
way, I’ve had the privilege of welcoming so many people home here. These guides are my
way of sharing what makes each community different, what makes them special, and why so many
people are proud to call them home.”
One builder, two series, and a second phase nobody's talking about yet
McLamb Farms is not laid out the way most people assume. It is a single-builder community —
Meritage Homes — split into two price tiers, with a separately approved second phase called
McLamb Station that adds duplexes to the mix. Pick the tier that fits and I'll send you live listings.
The entrance monument on No. 5 School Road. Both community accesses come off this road — one of them lines up with the Brunswick Health Center driveway.
The first thing to straighten out is the address. Meritage lists the sales office in
Ash, NC 28420, and the county file describes the site as "just outside Calabash."
Both are true. You are in unincorporated Brunswick County here — an Ash mailing address, no town
limits, no municipal tax, county services. Buyers who come in expecting a Calabash town address
are sometimes surprised at closing.
The second thing is timing. This community is being built right now, in phases, which means the
inventory you see today is not the inventory that will exist in eighteen months. What follows is how
I'd sort it if you were sitting across from me at my Calabash office.
Most buyers do not start by asking whether they want the Boardwalk or the
Coastline Series. They start with a much simpler question: how much house do I really want once
I get to the coast? Some want to shed square footage and spend less time maintaining it. Others
are leaving a larger home up north and know they still want room when children, grandchildren or
friends come to visit. McLamb Farms works best when you make that lifestyle decision first and
the floor plan decision second.
The Calabash docks, about ten minutes from the entrance. Still a working fleet — not a replica waterfront built for visitors.
Boardwalk Series
Meritage · entry tier
The smaller of the two Meritage series and the reason McLamb Farms shows up in searches under
$300,000 — a price band that has almost disappeared within ten minutes of Calabash. One- and
two-story plans, three to four bedrooms, with Meritage's energy-efficiency package built in
rather than sold as an upgrade.
The Kingstreet and Pendleton are the true entry plans and will be the ones that move fastest.
The Kirkwood and Sydney add a second story, which is where you pick up the fourth bedroom and
the half bath — worth thinking about if you're a retiree who does not want stairs in the daily
routine but wants somewhere to put visiting family.
There is a practical kind of freedom in these smaller plans. Less house to
furnish, less house to clean, and less money tied up in rooms you may only use a few times a
year. For a buyer whose goal is to be closer to the beach, the golf, the restaurants and the
family — not to spend every weekend maintaining a big house — the Boardwalk side may be the
more intentional choice, not simply the less expensive one.
Less house to look after is really a trade for time. Deciding what you want the time
for is the part worth doing before you pick a floor plan.
A one-story plan at the wrap stage — covered front porch, side-entry garage bay. Siding and trim go on after this.
Typical size
1,241 – 2,018 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 4
Baths
2 – 2.5
Stories
One and two-story plans
Garage
2-car attached
Builder
Meritage Homes
Published from
$269,990
Coastline Series
Meritage · larger plans
The wider, deeper side of the community. Six plans running from roughly 1,650 square feet to
just over 2,400, with three of them offering a full three baths. This is where the buyers land
who are trading a northern two-story for a coastal home and refuse to give up square footage
to do it.
Pay attention to the Kensington. At 2,203 square feet with three bedrooms and two and a half
baths, it gives up a bedroom relative to the Gibson but spends that space on living area — a
layout that suits couples entertaining more often than they host overnight guests. That
distinction matters more at resale than most buyers expect.
This is the side I expect many relocation buyers to understand immediately.
You can leave the oversized home behind without feeling as though you downsized your life.
There is room for a real dining table, a comfortable living area, guests who stay longer than
a weekend, and the things you are not quite ready to give away. The move can still feel like a
fresh start without feeling like a compromise.
A finished two-story on a corner homesite, with the next homes still going up alongside. Corner lots carry a premium here — ask what it is before you fall for one.
Typical size
1,648 – 2,412 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 4
Baths
2 – 3
Stories
One and two-story plans
Garage
2-car attached
Builder
Meritage Homes
Published from
$312,990
McLamb Station
Second phase · approved 2025
This is the piece the listing portals have not caught up with. In June 2025 the Brunswick
County Planning Board approved an expansion of the McLamb Farm planned development onto an
additional 73.26 acres — 128 more single-family homes and 184 duplex units,
to be titled McLamb Station.
Illustrative, not McLamb Station — nothing in that phase is built. When the paired
homes release, reading the plans against the actual homesite is the work that matters.
For some buyers, the most interesting part of McLamb Farms may be the part
that is not for sale yet. A future paired-home option could appeal to the buyer who wants a
coastal base without a long list of exterior chores — the kind of place you can lock, leave
for a few weeks, and come back to without feeling that the house spent your absence making a
to-do list.
The duplexes matter. Paired homes typically come with association-maintained lawns and
exteriors, which is the format that dominates the lock-and-leave second-home market in this
corridor. If that is what you are after, this phase is the one to watch — but it is approved,
not built. Nothing is released yet, and conceptual planning approval is not approval to construct.
No photographs of this
phase exist yet — nothing has been built. I'll add them the week ground breaks.
Resales & who else builds here
The honest version
You will see pages online implying McLamb Farms has custom homesites, multiple builders, or
a scattered-lot program. As approved and as marketed today, it does not. This is a
single-builder Meritage community — no custom sections, no independent builder lots,
no bring-your-own-builder homesites. If building custom is what you actually want, I will point
you at the communities in this corridor where that is genuinely possible.
A resale market will develop here, and when it does it will behave the way every first-generation
production community behaves: the earliest closings come back to market first, and the ones with
the good homesites hold their premium.
In a new community, buyers naturally focus on the floor plan and the
incentive sheet. Five years later, the homesite is often what they remember. Morning sun versus
afternoon sun, what sits behind the backyard, whether headlights sweep across the front windows,
how close you are to a future entrance — those are the details you live with long after the
closing-cost credit is forgotten. That is why I would choose the lot with the same care as the
house.
Builders on site
Meritage Homes only
Custom homesites
None offered
Developer / owner
L&L Venture Holdings LLC
Site engineer
Norris & Bland, Ash NC
What is actually on record
The land commitments, before anybody publishes an amenity brochure
Meritage has not released a specific amenity package for McLamb Farms. What does exist — and
what nobody else is quoting — is the county planning file, which records exactly how much open
space and recreation area the developer committed to. That is a firmer number than a rendering.
Open ground inside the community, looking across to a street of homes under construction. Silt fencing marks the limit of disturbance during grading.
Here is the number that should get your attention. Brunswick County required 5.98 acres of
recreation space for this development. The approved plan provides 11.57 acres —
nearly double the requirement. Open space came in at 40.66 acres against a 38.9-acre requirement.
That does not tell you there will be a pool, and I am not going to pretend it does. What it tells
you is that the developer set aside meaningful land for recreation rather than squeezing to the
minimum, which is a reasonable leading indicator — and a far better one than a marketing site map.
Those acreage numbers sound technical until you picture the alternative. In a
fast-growing part of Brunswick County, every acre that stays open, buffered or set aside for
recreation affects how a neighborhood feels once it is fully built. It can be the difference
between a community that feels packed into a site and one that still has some breathing room
around the edges.
It matters at the lot level too. A homesite backing to a preserved buffer is
a different house to live in than one backing to another back yard, and in a community still
being platted, those edges are claimable right now. In five years they will all be spoken for.
That is the kind of thing I want to walk with you before you sign a lot reservation, not after.
40.66 acres of open space
Committed in the approved plan against a county requirement of 38.9 acres. Includes the
buffers and preserved edges rather than usable lawn — worth understanding the difference.
11.57 acres of recreation space
Roughly double the 5.98 acres the county required. The specific improvements have not been
published; the land allocation has been.
County water and sewer
Connected to Brunswick County utilities — not a private package plant and not a well-and-septic
community. This matters for long-term cost and for resale.
Private internal roads
The streets inside the community are private, not NCDOT-maintained. Read the HOA section below
before you skip past this one — it is the single most underestimated line item here.
30-foot peripheral buffer
A 30-foot, 0.6-opacity buffer using existing vegetation runs the perimeter, with supplemental
landscaping where the county deems it necessary.
50-foot agricultural buffer
Where the development abuts a property inside a county Voluntary Agricultural District, a
50-foot buffer is mandated. That buffer exists because there is working farmland next door.
100-year stormwater standard
The stormwater system is to be built to the 100-year storm standard per the planning staff
report — a higher bar than many older subdivisions in this county were held to.
Golf, nearby but not included
Brunswick Plantation's 27 holes sit just east on US 17. Close enough to play constantly.
Not an amenity of this community — see the FAQ.
Sunset Beach at dusk, roughly fifteen minutes out. The best amenity near this community is not in anybody's HOA budget.
Before you rely on any amenity claim: if a national portal has published a pool,
clubhouse or fitness center for McLamb Farms, ask them for the source. I have not found one in the
builder's material or the county file as of this writing. When Meritage publishes the amenity
package, I will update this page and date it. Until then I would rather tell you what is recorded
than what sells.
The question everyone asks second
Dues, private roads, and the reserve question
McLamb Farms is new enough that dues and governing documents are still being established by the
declarant. That is normal. It also means the number you are quoted in the sales office is a
starting number, not a settled one — and there is one structural detail here that deserves real
scrutiny.
What the county file establishes
Internal roads are private, not state-maintained
Brunswick County water and sewer service
40.66 acres of open space to be maintained
11.57 acres of recreation space
Perimeter, street and agricultural buffers
Stormwater built to 100-year storm standard
Why private roads matter
NCDOT will not resurface them — the association will
Asphalt has a finite life; repaving is a large, lumpy cost
That cost should sit in a funded reserve, not a future assessment
Ask for the reserve study, not just the dues figure
A low early dues number can mean an underfunded reserve
Ask before you sign
Current dues, and what is bundled at each tier
Whether duplex owners will have a separate structure
Declarant control period and when owners take over
Rental and lease-term restrictions
Working capital or initiation fees at closing
A low dues number feels good on the day you buy. A properly funded association
feels good ten years later.
My standing practice: on every new-construction transaction I handle,
I pull the recorded declaration and any amendments — and I read them before my buyer signs. In a first-generation community with private
streets, the reserve position is not a formality. Ask me for the package on McLamb Farms and I will
get you what has been recorded to date.
Getting around
Two entrances, both on No. 5 School Road
McLamb Farms sits near the intersection of No. 5 School Road NW and Ash Little River Road,
west of Brunswick Plantation. Both community accesses come off No. 5 School Road — one
aligning with the Brunswick Health Center driveway, the other with the future Rich Square development.
Be realistic about the road network. The traffic impact analysis for the full 631-unit project
projects roughly 5,520 vehicle trips per weekday, and the county attached
conditions accordingly: a southbound right-turn lane off US 17 onto Pea Landing Road, a
northbound turn lane from No. 5 School Road onto Pea Landing Road, and turn-lane work at
Ash Little River Road and Hickman Road.
Those improvements are a condition of the development, which is good news. It also means there
will be road construction during your first years here if you buy early. I would rather you know
that now than discover it in year two.
Brunswick Plantation golf (US 17)
~2 min
Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary, Ash
~5 min
Carolina Shores retail & grocery on US 17
~7 min
Calabash waterfront & the seafood row
~10 min
Sunset Beach — the sand
~15 min
North Myrtle Beach
~20 min
Ocean Isle Beach
~20 min
Shallotte
~25 min
Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center
~45 min
Myrtle Beach International Airport
~50 min
Approximate driving times from the
community entrance, in normal traffic. Summer Saturdays on US 17 are their own category.
This is not an across-the-street-from-the-ocean
community, and for the right buyer that is exactly the point. You can head to Sunset Beach when
you want sand, Calabash when you want seafood, North Myrtle Beach when you want more going on —
and then come back to a neighborhood set well back from the busiest tourist corridors. It is
coastal access without requiring every part of daily life to happen in a resort setting.
The part that is hard to put in a listing. Fifteen minutes from the sand changes what an
ordinary weekend looks like.
The ordinary week is the part buyers forget to picture. Groceries and the
pharmacy are a few minutes up US 17 rather than a planned expedition. A doctor's appointment does
not cost you a morning. You can decide at five o'clock that you want to eat on the water in
Calabash and still be home before dark. None of that shows up in a listing, and all of it is what
you will actually notice in year two.
Dinner on the Calabash waterfront. Ten minutes each way is the difference between an occasion and a Tuesday.
Schools and the roads you'll hear named
Brunswick County Schools assigns by
address and boundaries change. Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary on Pea Landing Road is the closest
elementary school; Waccamaw School in Ash serves K–8. Confirm current assignment directly
with Brunswick County Schools before you buy on a school assumption — I will help you do it.
No. 5 School Road NW
Ash Little River Road
Pea Landing Road
Hickman Road
US Highway 17
Caw Caw Canal (southern boundary)
Interior street names are assigned as
phases are platted. Ask me if you are unsure whether an address falls inside the community.
Before you spend a Saturday on it
Who tends to see the appeal here?
After twenty-eight years I can usually tell within one conversation whether a community is
going to fit somebody. These are the buyers McLamb Farms tends to land with.
The relocation buyer who wants to be near Calabash and Sunset Beach but does not need a town
or island address to feel like they made it to the coast.
The buyer looking for new construction in the upper-$200s to mid-$300s who is not willing to
give up a two-car garage to get there.
The downsizer who wants less house but still wants a conventional single-family neighborhood —
not a condo, not a stacked townhome.
The buyer who wants interior room for family visits and will trade a little more house for a
little less proximity to the sand.
The future lock-and-leave buyer who wants to watch the McLamb Station paired-home phase
develop before committing to anything.
The buyer who wants somebody evaluating homesites, future phases, drainage, orientation and
HOA structure — not just cabinet colors and a closing-cost credit.
McLamb Farms will not be the right answer for everybody, and that is useful to
know early. If your priority is walking to the beach, living inside a golf community, or building
a one-off custom home, I would show you something else — and I would tell you so on the phone
rather than after you drove out here. If your goal is a new, energy-efficient home with practical
access to the southern Brunswick coast at a price that still leaves room for the rest of your
life, this community deserves a serious look.
The shops along the Calabash waterfront. Errands, a gift and a walk in one stop — the ordinary kind of convenience that decides whether a place fits.
Questions I get about McLamb Farms
Is McLamb Farms in Calabash?
Not technically. The site is in unincorporated Brunswick County with an Ash, NC 28420 mailing
address, near the intersection of No. 5 School Road NW and Ash Little River Road. County records
describe it as "just outside Calabash." Practically you are about ten minutes from the Calabash
waterfront, but you are not inside Calabash town limits — which means no municipal property tax
and county rather than town services. Several listing sites blur this; the distinction shows up
on your tax bill.
Is McLamb Farms a 55+ community?
No. Nothing in the builder's material or the county approval establishes an age restriction.
It is being marketed as a general-market community. If age-restricted living is specifically what
you want, tell me and I will point you to the communities in this corridor that genuinely are —
there are several, and the difference is legally meaningful, not cosmetic.
What is the difference between McLamb Farms and McLamb Station?
McLamb Station is the second phase, approved by the Brunswick County Planning Board on June 9,
2025. It adds 128 single-family homes and 184 duplex units on an additional 73.26 acres, bringing
the whole planned development to 631 units on 155.62 acres. It sits under the same McLamb Farm
planned development umbrella. As of this writing it is approved, not built, and nothing has been
released for sale.
Do residents get access to Brunswick Plantation's golf course?
No — not as a community amenity. Brunswick Plantation is a separate community just east on
US 17 with its own 27-hole course laid out by Willard Byrd and Clyde Johnston across three nines:
Azalea, Dogwood and Magnolia. Living nearby means you can play there conveniently on whatever
public or membership terms the club offers. It does not come bundled with a McLamb Farms purchase.
I see this one misstated online regularly.
Are the streets public or private?
Private. The planning file specifies that internal roads will be private, which means the
homeowners association is responsible for maintaining and eventually resurfacing them rather than
NCDOT. That is not a reason to avoid the community — plenty of good neighborhoods here are on
private streets — but it is a reason to read the reserve study carefully before you buy, because
repaving is the largest predictable expense an association like this will face.
Is any of it in a flood zone?
Portions of the overall project site are within a mapped flood hazard area, and the site backs to
the Caw Caw Canal on its southern edge. The county staff report is explicit that no lots will be
permitted to be constructed in on-site flood zones, and stormwater is to be built to the 100-year
storm standard. Even so, I pull the current FEMA map and the elevation certificate on the specific
homesite before my buyer commits — flood maps get revised, and lot-level answers beat
community-level ones.
What is the farmland next door, and does it affect me?
The county required a 50-foot buffer where this development abuts a property inside a Voluntary
Agricultural District. A VAD is a program that protects working farms from nuisance complaints by
new neighbors. In plain terms: there is active agriculture adjacent to parts of this community,
and equipment noise at odd hours, dust, odor and spraying are normal, legal, protected activity
there. Some buyers love the open view. Others are genuinely unhappy the first spring. I will walk
you the perimeter and show you which homesites are affected before you choose one.
Can I use my own agent when buying new construction here?
Yes — and this is the one that costs people money. You generally must have your agent with you or
registered on your first visit to the sales office. Walk in alone, sign the visitor card,
and you may forfeit the right to independent representation on that community. The builder's sales
agent is a good person doing a real job, but they represent the builder. Call me before you go and
I will meet you there. It does not change your price.
How is the resale market here?
Too early for meaningful resale data in McLamb Farms specifically — the community is still in
first-generation construction. What I can give you is the surrounding market: absorption rate,
days on market and closed price trends for comparable new-construction communities in the Ash,
Calabash and Carolina Shores corridor. Ask me for the current edition. It is free and there is no
obligation attached to it.
I sold new construction for the builders. Now I work for you.
With almost 30 years in the real estate industry — and a long stretch of it working on
the sales teams for home builders such as Bill Clark Homes, Stevens Fine Homes,
D.R. Horton, Wade Jurney Homes, Centex Homes, Beazer Homes and Portrait Homes — I know how
homesite premiums get priced, where the good lots in a phase are, and which upgrades hold
their value at resale and which never come back.
I moved to the Brunswick County coast 20 years ago to help build these communities because
I wanted the same life many of my clients want now — a chance to buy my dream home just
minutes from the beach. After years on the builder side of the business, I’ve learned
that the best home isn’t always the newest home, the biggest home or even the house
with the longest upgrade list. It’s the one that fits the life you’re actually
moving here to have.
McLamb Farms is a first-generation community on private streets next to protected farmland,
with a second phase still to come. That is exactly the situation where having somebody on your
side of the table who has sat on the other one is worth something. Call me before your first
visit to the sales office.