Results: What the 2025 Holly Springs (NC) Community Survey Revealed About Our Town

The latest community survey reveals a town residents still love, alongside growing unease about traffic, growth, and where Holly Springs is headed next.

Holly Springs, NC, Feb. 8, 2026 — Every few years, the Town of Holly Springs asks residents a simple but important question: How are we doing?

The 2025 Community Survey, conducted by ETC Institute in fall 2025, is the Town’s third such effort, following surveys in 2021 and 2023. The seven-page survey was mailed to a random sample of households, with an online option available. A total of 401 residents completed the survey, yielding a sample size with a margin of error of approximately ±5%. Online responses were verified by address to ensure only Holly Springs residents were counted. (Click here for full report)

The survey asks residents to rate a wide range of Town services and conditions, from police and fire response to parks, traffic, growth, communication, and overall quality of life. Importantly, many questions exclude “don’t know” responses, meaning results reflect the views of residents who felt informed enough to have an opinion.

This article does not attempt to summarize every chart or table in the 150-page report. Instead, the analysis focuses on what matters most to residents: the top 10 areas where the Town is performing well and the top 10 challenges or warning signals residents consistently point to. Together, they tell a clear story about where Holly Springs stands today, and where residents want it to go next.

A Town Most Residents Still Feel Good About

The strongest message in the survey is also the simplest: most residents still like living in Holly Springs.

Quality-of-life ratings remain exceptionally high. Nearly all respondents rated Holly Springs as a good or excellent place to live, raise children, and feel comfortable. Those numbers have remained steady over time, suggesting that daily life continues to work for most people. Neighborhoods feel livable. Services feel dependable. The sense of community remains intact.

That context matters. Many of the concerns that appear later in the survey do not come from residents who believe Holly Springs is failing. They are coming from residents who believe the Town has done a lot right and want to protect it.

Safety and Services Continue to Anchor Confidence

Public safety remains one of Holly Springs’ strongest assets.

More than nine in ten residents said they are satisfied with police and fire services, including emergency response times. Nearly everyone reported feeling safe in their neighborhood during the day, and large majorities said the same at night, in parks, and in shopping areas.

These results are not just strong. They are among the strongest in the entire survey and significantly higher than what residents report in many comparable communities. They help explain why frustration around traffic or growth has not turned into fear or instability. Residents may be annoyed, but they still feel safe.

That same pattern shows up in basic services. Trash and recycling collection continues to receive high marks. Yard waste services draw more mixed reviews, but overall, the fundamentals are solid. These are the kinds of services people only notice when they break. In Holly Springs, they largely have not.

Parks, Recreation, and Downtown Still Matter a Lot

Parks, greenways, and recreation continue to play an outsized role in how residents experience Holly Springs.

Residents consistently rated park maintenance, athletic fields, trails, and recreation programs highly. Several of those areas actually improved since the last survey, particularly senior programs and walking and biking trails. When the Town invests in visible, usable amenities, residents notice.

Downtown is another bright spot. More than eight in ten residents rated the downtown atmosphere positively, with very few saying it is poor. That finding is important because downtown is one of Holly Springs's most visible examples of growth.

Taken together, these results suggest residents are not opposed to development itself. They respond well when growth feels intentional, human-scaled, and connected to community life.

Most Interactions With Town Staff Are Positive

When residents contact the Town, most report a positive experience.

A large majority of respondents who interacted with Town employees said it was easy to reach the right person and that staff were courteous and responsive. Many said employees followed through as promised.

That distinction shows up repeatedly in the survey. Residents often separate how services are delivered from how decisions are made. Even residents who are frustrated with traffic or development tend to speak positively about the people doing the work.

That goodwill matters. It gives the Town room to address tougher issues without losing trust across the board.

Where Frustration Is Concentrated: Traffic and Growth

If the survey has a clear pressure point, it is traffic.

Only about one in five residents said they are satisfied with how traffic is managed, the lowest rating of any major service area. Traffic also ranked as the top issue residents want the Town to focus on over the next two years.

Traffic is different from many other concerns because it occurs every day. It affects commutes, school drop-offs, errands, and the time emergency vehicles need to travel through town. For many residents, traffic has become a proxy for broader worries about growth and infrastructure.

Growth and development planning sits right behind traffic. Fewer than one-third of residents said they are satisfied with how growth is being managed, and it ranked second among future priorities.

The survey suggests residents are not broadly opposed to growth. Instead, many are uneasy about whether development is being timed, explained, and supported by infrastructure in ways that protect existing neighborhoods.

A Drop in Transparency Is Fueling Unease

One of the most striking findings in the 2025 survey is how sharply some planning-related ratings fell since 2023.

Satisfaction declined significantly when residents were asked about access to information about proposed developments, confidence in development quality, and trust in the Planning Board's decision-making. These declines were among the largest anywhere in the survey.

That pattern points less to disagreement over any single project and more to a sense that decisions are being made without sufficient explanation or early engagement. In other words, the issue is not just what is being approved, but how residents experience the process.

Direction Feels Less Certain Than Daily Life

While quality-of-life ratings remain very high, fewer residents feel confident about the Town’s overall direction.

Only about six in ten respondents rated the Town’s direction positively, far lower than ratings for living in Holly Springs today. That gap is telling.

Residents appear comfortable with where the Town is now, but increasingly uncertain about where it is headed, particularly as growth continues and traffic worsens. It is a forward-looking concern rather than a reflection of dissatisfaction with current conditions.

Some Groups Feel Less Well Served

The survey also highlights quieter signals that may matter more over time.

Holly Springs was rated less favorably for young professionals than for families or seniors. While not an emergency, it raises questions about housing options, transportation, access to jobs, and work-life balance.

Transportation options other than driving also received low ratings. Public transportation, bike lanes, and pedestrian connectivity lag behind growth, reinforcing traffic frustration and car dependence.

Code enforcement and development-related customer service also received mixed reviews. In both cases, the issue appears less about whether rules or services exist and more about consistency and ease of use.

Residents Draw a Line Between Services and Governance

Another subtle but important finding is residents' views on governance.

Ratings for Town leadership and opportunities for public input were noticeably lower than ratings for safety, parks, and basic services. That does not mean residents think leadership is failing. It suggests they are less confident in how decisions are made or how residents are involved.

In short, many residents trust the Town to run services well but want greater clarity and confidence in how major decisions are made.

The Survey’s Message Is Clear and Focused

For all its charts and tables, the survey delivers a surprisingly consistent message.

The two issues residents care about most, traffic and growth, are also the areas where satisfaction is lowest. That alignment appears repeatedly across the survey.

At the same time, Holly Springs continues to outperform many comparable communities in safety, services, parks, and overall quality of life. This is not a town in decline. It is a town managing the pressures of success.

Residents appear to be saying something fairly simple: we like where we live, but we are worried about whether the systems managing growth and mobility are keeping up.

How the Town responds to that message may shape not just the next survey but also residents' confidence in Holly Springs’ future.

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Next, HSU will dig into the “middle” of the survey results, where data points to items on which Holly Springs residents are still undecided or mixed.

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