The Camp Branch Greenway Would Link Sunset Oaks to Cary. Cary's Half Doesn't Have a Date Yet.

If a paved path ran through the woods along Camp Branch, east of Sunset Lake Road, where would you want to step onto it from Sunset Oaks?

The Town of Holly Springs is asking that question now. The answer will shape a trail that, for its first several years, will mostly serve the neighborhoods right beside it. The headline says the greenway could eventually reach Cary. The planning documents show that the Cary end has no completion date. What Holly Springs controls is its own 1.21 miles, and that is the part open to public input.

What Holly Springs announced on Oct. 22

On October 22, 2026, the town announced that preplanning had officially begun for the Camp Branch Greenway. It is a planned 1.21-mile paved path off Sunset Lake Road in eastern Holly Springs, expected to include sections of boardwalk. The announcement says the greenway "could eventually connect the Wescott, Carrington, and Sunset Oaks neighborhoods with a greenway in neighboring Cary."

The announcement came the day after a public open house on Wednesday, October 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Bass Lake Conference Room at 900 Bass Lake Road. Attendees could see early concepts, ask questions and share ideas. Anyone who missed it can still respond through the online survey linked from the town's Camp Branch Greenway project page, which asks what features residents would like to see on the trail.

So far the project is a corridor and a set of possibilities. The town's opportunities map, dated October 21, 2026, is marked "NOT TO SCALE." It labels Sunset Oaks, Talicud, Wescott, Carrington Estates and Creek Side as nearby neighborhoods. It also shades slope constraints, marks a Duke Energy easement, flags several "potential neighborhood connection" points and draws an arrow labeled "FUTURE CARY GREENWAY CONNECTION." No final route has been drawn.

Cary's connecting stretch has no date

The trail this project would join is Cary's own Camp Branch Greenway, and the Holly Springs plan depends on it. When consultants bidding on the design contract asked whether Holly Springs had a completion date for the Cary segment, the town answered in its March 13, 2026 RFQ addendum:

"The Town does not currently have an estimated completion date."

According to the Town of Cary's greenway page, Cary's Camp Branch Greenway is a 0.7-mile neighborhood trail running through the Stanton subdivision. Cary plans to extend it north to Oak Grove Elementary and to the street-side trails along Penny Road and Kildaire Farm Road. To the south, it would follow Camp Branch Creek and then Middle Creek to the southern tip of Cary, connecting to Middle Creek Park and beyond. Those extensions are listed as future plans.

Both towns use the same creek name for their trails, and both plan to meet. The gap between them is a stretch of Camp Branch that neither town has scheduled. The Holly Springs segment can be built before Cary's arrives, and in that case it will function first as a trail for the neighborhoods off Sunset Lake Road.

What the Holly Springs side has, and what it still needs

The money and the timeline show how far along the Holly Springs side is:

1. July 31, 2025. Governor Josh Stein's office announced Great Trails State Program awards, including $300,000 to the Town of Holly Springs for the "Middle Creek to Camp Branch Greenway."
2. February 18, 2026. The town advertised RFQ 26-0218 for a feasibility study, with possible preliminary engineering, final design and permitting. Responses were due March 25.
3. July 21, 2026. A "Camp Branch Greenway - Feasibility and Design Contract" item appeared on the Holly Springs Town Council agenda.
4. October 21 and 22, 2026. The open house was held, and the survey announcement followed the next day.
5. About one year after contract award. This is the town's target for finishing the feasibility study.
6. 2028. This is the town's targeted construction start.

That 2028 target comes with a caveat in the same document. "Funding is allocated for the feasibility study and design," the town wrote. "No funding for construction is currently allocated." The town also said the bidding and construction schedule "is unknown." The state grant is helping pay for the work underway now. Paying to build the trail is a separate step that has not happened yet.

So the work through 2027 is mostly decisions: where the path runs, how it handles the stream and slope constraints the map already flags, where the boardwalk goes and where neighborhoods connect. The town's Park and Greenway Planner, Thomas Gull, is the day-to-day project manager through the feasibility study. Project Engineer Chelsea Davis takes over that role when the project moves into final design and permitting.

Why access points matter most this fall

Most of a greenway's day-to-day value for nearby households comes down to a few design choices. These include how close an entry point is to a given street, whether the trail stays usable after rain, and what sits at each end. Every one of those choices is on the table during the phase the town is in now.

The town has said how much weight it intends to give public input. In the RFQ addendum, Holly Springs said it expects public engagement "consistent with IAP2's Involve and Collaborate levels." The town also named its stakeholders: neighborhood HOAs, town staff, the Holly Springs Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, the relevant regulatory and permitting agencies, and the Town of Cary. So Sunset Oaks has two ways to be heard: individual survey responses now, and its HOA through the feasibility process.

The map gives a sense of what will be discussed. The "potential neighborhood connection" markers appear at more than one point along the corridor. Because the map is not to scale, none of those markers is a commitment. It does show that the town expects several neighborhoods to connect to the corridor, and the feasibility study will decide where those connections go and how many survive.

The town has also described the segment's role in its larger plan. It says the Camp Branch project advances the Holly Springs Greenway Master Plan by "providing an interjurisdictional connection to the Town of Cary's planned Camp Branch Greenway corridor." It adds that the segment "will also connect existing segments of greenways and provide a recreational asset to those living on the eastern most edge of Holly Springs." The last of those goals can be met without waiting for Cary. The state grant's name, "Middle Creek to Camp Branch," points toward the same creek corridor that Cary eventually plans to follow south to Middle Creek Park.

The survey is linked from the project page. It is the simplest way to put a specific request on record, such as an access point at the end of a particular street, boardwalk where the ground stays soft, or benches at an overlook. Until Cary sets a date for its stretch, those local details will define what the Camp Branch Greenway is for Sunset Oaks. Cary's end of the creek can be walked today on the existing 0.7-mile trail through Stanton, which is open dawn to dusk.

Kimberlee Edwards follows projects like Camp Branch because they shape eastern Holly Springs for years after the open house is over. If you'd like to talk through what this greenway could mean for your part of Sunset Oaks, let's connect.