In Aberdeen's Next Neighborhoods, the Way Out to the Highway Matters as Much as the Floor Plan

If you tour a new home off N.C. 5 in Aberdeen this fall, you'll get there on a road that is being rebuilt. NCDOT plans to divide about 3.3 miles of N.C. 5, from U.S. 1 to Whitney Drive, with a center island. Left turns will be limited, and U-turn "bulbs" will handle trips across the road. The left turn you make out of a model-home parking lot today may not be possible from the same driveway once the work is finished.

Aberdeen's planned growth sits mostly along two highways, N.C. 5 and U.S. 15-501, and both are in the same state improvement program. On these corridors, how a subdivision connects to traffic is being decided by state engineers and the Aberdeen Town Board, and those decisions are changing which homes get built and where their entrances go. Buyers comparing Sandhills towns usually start with price per square foot. In Aberdeen, the first thing to check is the route out to the highway.

The Center Turn Lane Has an End Date

NCDOT's U.S. 1/15-501 and N.C. 5 Improvements project covers three highways and is funded at $274 million. NCDOT says segments that now have a two-way center turn lane will mostly lose it, replaced by a raised median and "reduced conflict intersections." The N.C. 5 piece, from U.S. 1 in Aberdeen to Trotter Drive and Blake Boulevard in Pinehurst, is the biggest at an estimated $119.7 million. The U.S. 15-501 section runs from U.S. 1 in Aberdeen to Brucewood Road in Southern Pines and is estimated at $61.7 million.

According to The Pilot's report on the DOT's progress, the finished N.C. 5 will include:

• Four lanes starting in Aberdeen, narrowing to three around the Linden Road intersection heading toward Pinehurst
• A new traffic signal at the Aberdeen Elementary School intersection
• A second new signal at Linden Road
• A multi-use path about 10 feet wide along the north side, tying into existing sidewalks at U.S. 1 and running toward Blake Boulevard

So far the work has been preparation: land acquisition, clearing, utility moves and grading. On N.C. 5, crews have been regrading and relocating water and sewer lines. NCDOT engineer Travis Morgan told The Pilot to expect more grading, utility relocation and storm drainage work, with possible nightly lane closures between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

NCDOT's posted completion date is fall 2028. The Pilot has linked that target to the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open, which Pinehurst hosts back to back in 2029. The money is moving more slowly than the deadline, though. On Nov. 5, 2026, the NCDOT Board of Transportation's project list said construction spending on the N.C. 5 project "has not occurred as quickly as originally anticipated." The board cut that project's fiscal 2027 funding by $5 million and the U.S. 1 project's by $15 million, shifting both amounts to fiscal 2028. If you're buying along N.C. 5 now, expect a construction zone for at least the next two years and a different road layout at the end of it.

A Highway Plan That Moved a Neighborhood's Entrance

The road plan also shapes decisions before anything is built, and Sandhills Station shows how. Habitat for Humanity of the NC Sandhills is planning a mixed-use, mixed-income community there on about 103 acres between U.S. 15-501, Pee Dee Road and Hight Road. On Oct. 26, the Aberdeen Town Board approved a revised plan that removes the residential entrance from U.S. 15-501. Homes will be reached only from Pee Dee Road and Hight Road. According to the Sandhills Sentinel, an internal north-south road will connect Hight Road to Pee Dee Road, and Kimley-Horn traffic engineer Nathan Romberg said talks with NCDOT about highway access were still going on.

That left the commercial frontage on the highway, and the board took up how many driveways it should get. Town Manager Paul Sabiston explained the concern to The Pilot:

"I would hate to see six different driveway permits by six different owners if they're all at different parts on that strip. I don't know that DOT would OK it, but I'm not sure I want to live in the 'What's DOT going to do tomorrow?' world. I'd rather have a shared entrance."

The board limited the commercial parcels to three access points, two on U.S. 15-501 and a secondary one on Hight Road. The Sentinel reported that Mayor Robbie Farrell questioned how many driveways the two-lane highway could take as nearby projects add homes.

The town takes the same approach on N.C. 5. Early in 2026, the board voted 5-0 to apply the NC Highway 5 Priority Corridor Overlay to properties along the highway. Planning Director Pam Graham said its purpose was to preserve the viewshed, improve connectivity and reduce traffic hazards from new entrances onto the highway. The overlay leaves base zoning and allowable uses unchanged, and it applies only to new development or redevelopment. In both cases, Aberdeen is limiting how many ways traffic can get onto the highway more than how many homes go on the land.

Why 140 Apartments Became 115 Lots

The revised plan also changed what kind of housing Sandhills Station will have. The total dropped from 340 homes to 280. The original design's multifamily section, which combined affordable workforce units with units that had no income limits, was replaced by 115 single-family homes to be sold to a market-rate builder. Habitat plans to keep roughly 150 homes as its own builds. Rear alleys became front driveways, a town well site was moved, and the build went from five phases to two. Open space grew from about 23.2 acres to 26.5.

Habitat's stated reasons were market conditions and the loss of development partners. The Pilot also reported the nonprofit's earlier explanation that more apartments and townhomes were going up around the county. A developer that started with a plan anchored by multifamily housing decided Moore County already had enough of it and switched to detached homes. That tells you where builders currently see unmet demand. Habitat bought the land in 2023 after receiving a $3.5 million grant from MacKenzie Scott. The project is estimated at $15 million, with the first phase expected to start in 2028.

One Subdivision, Four Price Tiers

On N.C. 5, the newest homes are going up in D.R. Horton's Martin Farms. It covers about 230 acres beside the new Aberdeen Elementary School, has approval from 2020 for 515 homes, and is entered from N.C. 5 by way of Farrell Parkway. That entrance is at the school intersection where NCDOT plans a new signal, so Martin Farms will have a signal at its front door, something many other entrances along the divided stretch won't get.

Within the community, the builder sells four separate product lines. Starting prices as listed on the builder's community pages at the time of writing:

The gap from the townhome line to the Manors is about $140,000, and every home in all four lines uses the same entrance and the same road. Within Martin Farms, price reflects the product type, while location along the corridor is the same for everyone.

Martin Farms isn't the only project here. According to the Sandhills Sentinel, Ribera Development's Ten Pines, approved in November 2025, covers 122.3 acres east of N.C. 5 and south of Olivia Lane, near the Aberdeen–Pinehurst line, Country Club of North Carolina and Jackson Hamlet. It is planned for 305 single-family homes and duplexes, with estimated prices from the high $300,000s to the high $500,000s. Martin Farms and Ten Pines together come to about 820 homes, close to The Pilot's estimate of "more than 800 homes planned for construction along N.C. 5." That growth is part of why Aberdeen's 2026-27 budget includes new water wells and water and sewer line replacements while keeping the property tax rate at 42 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Questions to Ask Before You Choose a Lot on the Corridor

All of the above comes down to a few practical questions about any new-construction home along N.C. 5 or U.S. 15-501:

1. Where will the entrance be on NCDOT's final plan? Compare the subdivision entrance with the project maps on the NCDOT page and see whether it lines up with a signal, a U-turn bulb or a right-in, right-out driveway.
2. Which way is your daily drive? On a divided stretch, a trip toward Pinehurst and a trip toward U.S. 1 can follow different routes from the same driveway.
3. How long will you live next to construction? With fall 2028 as the posted finish and some funding moved to fiscal 2028, plan around grading, drainage work and nightly lane closures.
4. Which product line within the community fits you? In Martin Farms, the townhome, villa and detached lines differ more in price than in location.
5. When will the community be built out? Sandhills Station's first phase isn't expected until 2028, so a nearby home bought now will sit next to an active site for years.

A Few Direct Questions

Is N.C. 5 being widened all the way to Pinehurst? It will be four lanes from Aberdeen, narrowing to three around Linden Road toward the Blake Boulevard intersection in Pinehurst.

Will Sandhills Station homes have a driveway onto U.S. 15-501? No. Residential access in the approved revision is from Pee Dee Road and Hight Road only.

Does the N.C. 5 corridor overlay affect homes and businesses already there? The town applied it to new development and redevelopment, and the base zoning and allowable uses stay the same.

If you're comparing an Aberdeen corridor lot with a resale home elsewhere in the Sandhills, The Gentry Team can go through the NCDOT plans, entrance locations and build timelines with you before you commit. Request a free consultation, and we'll look at how the road outside a particular property is expected to work once the construction is finished.