The Middle of the 2025 Holly Springs (NC) Community Survey Results: Where Residents Are Still Deciding
Between what’s working and what’s worrying, the survey’s middle reveals quieter signals about trust, direction, and what residents may push for next.
Holly Springs, NC, Feb. 11, 2026 — Earlier this week (story), Holly Springs Update examined the top 10 strengths and top 10 challenges identified in the Town’s 2025 Community Survey, focusing on where resident satisfaction was strongest and where concerns were most pronounced.
This follow-up examines a different aspect of the data.
The 2025 Holly Springs Community Survey (results), conducted by ETC Institute in the Fall of last year, collected responses from 401 residents through a randomized, address-verified mail and online process. The results carry a margin of error of approximately ±5%. For most questions, “don’t know” responses were excluded from satisfaction percentages, meaning results reflect the views of residents who felt informed enough to offer an opinion.
Between the highest- and lowest-rated results sits a wide group of survey questions that landed in the middle of the pack. These are not the areas residents praise most, nor the ones drawing the sharpest frustration. Instead, they reflect services, processes, and perceptions in which opinions are more mixed, and confidence is less settled.
This story focuses on those middle-tier results, the questions that did not rise to the top or fall to the bottom, but nonetheless offer important clues about where expectations are forming, where uncertainty exists, and where future concerns could emerge.
What follows is a plain-language look at that middle ground, based solely on data contained in the Town’s survey report.
Editor’s note
Unlike the highest- and lowest-rated survey results, which are defined by clear numerical thresholds, the middle-tier findings require more interpretation. HSU’s analysis of these results is based on patterns across multiple survey questions and trends over time, not on any single data point.
The 2025 Holly Springs Community Survey shows a town that is neither complacent nor in crisis. While some areas clearly excel and others clearly struggle, a wide range of questions fell squarely in the middle of the results. These are not the services residents praise most, nor are they the ones that elicit the sharpest frustration. Instead, they represent areas where opinions are softer, confidence is uneven, and expectations are still forming.
For the community, that middle matters.
Residents like living here, but feel less certain about direction and value
One of the clearest middle-of-the-pack signals comes from questions about direction and value.
While overall quality-of-life ratings remain exceptionally high, only about six in ten residents rated the overall direction of the Town as excellent or good. Ratings for the value received from Town tax dollars and fees fell within a similar range.
These aren’t failing scores. But they are noticeably lower than ratings for safety, parks, or simply living in Holly Springs.
The gap suggests something important. Residents appear satisfied with how life feels today, but less confident about whether current decisions are setting the Town up well for the future. Direction and value are forward-looking questions, and the survey indicates those answers are less settled.
This is uncertainty, not dissatisfaction.
Governance confidence sits below service confidence — and the gap is about process, not people
One of the clearer middle-of-the-pack patterns in the survey concerns residents' views of decision-making, rather than of Town employees or services.
Ratings for Town leadership, opportunities for public input, and overall direction clustered below scores for core services such as public safety, parks, and customer service. At the same time, residents consistently rated their direct interactions with Town staff positively.
That contrast matters. The survey does not ask residents to evaluate individual officials or employees, nor does it measure satisfaction with any specific administration. Instead, these governance-related questions reflect residents' experiences of the process: how decisions are made, how information is shared, and how they perceive the fit between their input and the outcome.
Viewed that way, the results point less to dissatisfaction with people and more to uncertainty about participation and transparency, particularly around complex or long-term decisions. It is a signal about how governance is experienced, not a judgment about who is in charge.
This distinction helps explain why confidence in governance trails confidence in service delivery. Residents largely trust the Town to operate services effectively, while still wanting clearer pathways for understanding and engaging with decision-making as the Town continues to grow.
Identity questions reveal who the Town feels built for
Some of the most telling middle-of-the-pack results come from questions about who Holly Springs feels like it’s designed for.
Ratings for Holly Springs as a place for young professionals landed around 58 percent excellent or good. Ratings for the Town as a place for seniors were lower still, though heavily influenced by high “don’t know” responses. Ratings for Holly Springs as a place to work were also pulled down by large numbers of residents who felt unable to answer.
These questions are different from service ratings. They reflect identity and fit more than performance.
The survey suggests that while Holly Springs strongly meets the needs of families, other groups are less certain that the Town is oriented toward them. That doesn’t mean those residents are unhappy. This indicates they are less certain about how they fit within the Town’s long-term vision.
Transportation beyond traffic is quietly shaping frustration
Traffic management sits firmly at the bottom of the survey. But several transportation-related questions landed in the middle, forming an important bridge between everyday inconvenience and long-term concern.
Ratings for pedestrian walkways, ease of travel to work, bike lanes, and public transportation were not among the lowest scores, but they were clearly weaker than those for most services. Satisfaction was lowest for alternatives to driving.
These results suggest that traffic frustration isn’t only about congestion. It’s also about limited options. As Holly Springs grows, residents are increasingly aware that most trips still require a car, and alternatives haven’t kept pace.
This cluster of middle-tier transportation scores helps explain why traffic feels so personal and persistent.
Code enforcement and development processes feel uneven, not absent
Several questions related to code enforcement and development processes also landed squarely in the middle.
Satisfaction with the enforcement of property maintenance, signage, and debris cleanup hovered around the midpoint, with notable variation. Similarly, ratings for development services, customer service, and access to development information declined since 2023 but did not fall to the lowest levels of the survey.
These are not signs of systems failing outright. They are signs of inconsistency.
For residents, uneven experiences can be just as frustrating as poor performance. When similar situations appear to receive different treatment, confidence erodes quietly.
The survey suggests this erosion is underway, but not complete.
The middle is where expectations are still forming
What makes these middle-tier questions so important is that they are not fixed opinions.
Residents aren’t rallying around them yet. They aren’t voting them down either. They are watching, waiting, and deciding.
Historically, this is where issues either stabilize or slide. If uncertainty is addressed with clarity, explanation, and visible follow-through, it often fades. If it isn’t, it tends to harden into dissatisfaction in future surveys.
That makes the middle the most actionable part of the data.
What this means for Holly Springs, and for readers
Taken together, the middle of the survey tells a quieter story than the top or bottom results, but no less important.
Holly Springs residents largely trust the Town to run services well. They feel safe. They value parks, neighborhoods, and community life. At the same time, they are less certain about direction, governance, consistency, and how growth decisions add up over time.
These are not signs of a town in trouble. They are signs of a town at a decision point.
For residents, the middle represents the stage at which questions remain open.
For leaders, it’s where trust can still be built.
HSU will continue examining these middle-ground issues in future coverage, focusing on how decisions are made, how information flows, and how today’s choices shape tomorrow’s Holly Springs.