CHOCOWINITY — In the early 1990s, the sprawling community of Cypress Landing was built on a former Weyerhauser tree farm sitting on the shore of Chocowinity Bay. Seven hundred and twenty lots and 568 homes later, the neighborhood is less defined by a collection of streets and houses than by its biggest draw — the Cypress Landing way of life.

Cypress Landing is many things: palatial waterfront homes and small patio homes designed for those who want less maintenance in their lives. It has a four-star, 18-hole golf course and grill; a 222-slip marina on a protected bay; tennis courts, a pool and a playground. There’s a butterfly garden created by the garden club; the golf course is Audubon certified. Cypress Landing has many amenities, according to Cypress Landing marketing co-chair Dawn Zougari and community association manager Tomi Moody, but its greatest asset is its people.

Those people come from all over, drawn by the mild winters, low property taxes and the Pamlico River. Many have made their way to Beaufort County from the northeast and Midwest; others from the Triangle area.

“Really, we have close to 50 states represented here, including some countries,” Moody said.

When houses first began springing up on the south side of the river, the newly retired flocked to Cypress Landing. Now, its residents include young families, weekenders visiting the homes to which they’ll eventually retire and the retired.

“In the beginning, it was more of the early retiree age,” Moody said. “Now we’re getting a lot more families, people who are working in the Greenville area. That’s a big draw. I would say it’s a mix.”

“We’re definitely getting younger, but we’re also definitely young at heart,” Zougari added.

That’s the community pride and spirit so pervasive in Cypress Landing. The Home Owners Association has more than 12 committees and 250 active volunteers who do everything from landscaping and building maintenance to, like Zougari, marketing. There are bridge groups, supper clubs, wine and car clubs. The yacht and golf clubs host races and tournaments.

“We have a very active lifestyle here,” Moody said.

It’s a lifestyle they share with visitors from near and far — those who’ve found Cypress Landing through its website and various planned-community websites with which they’ve partnered. For $175 per couple, prospective buyers can experience that lifestyle by taking part in the weekend-long Discover Cypress Landing package.

“We arrange for tour with a real estate agent; we have relationships with local realtors. We also hook them up with ambassadors, whatever their interests are — golfing, boating — and they’ll take them out to dinner, take them out on the boat on the bay, take them golfing,” Moody said. “The resident ambassadors do the lifestyle experience.”

Experiencing the people of Cypress Landing makes an impression.

“I hear (from people) one of the big reasons why they moved here was how friendly people were here,” Moody said. “It’s just very open, warm, and I think in a large part because people can relate — they’ve come from different places, they’ve changed their own lives, moved away from families.”

Houses in Cypress Landing range in price from $200,000 to $1 million. Lot sizes are generally half an acre, though some have bought two lots to make an acre. Those are the stats, but it’s really not the numbers that sell Cypress Landing homes.

“It’s not necessarily the beautiful homes; it’s the beautiful people,” Zougari said. “The houses are nice, but the people are much nicer.”

For more information about Cypress Landing, visit the website at cypresslanding.com.