Resident urges Holly Springs to ease dog-barking evidence requirement after years of disturbance

Liz Steiner, a Holly Springs resident who said she lives at 101 Lake Reserve Way, told the council she has endured years of nonstop dog barking that left her unable to sleep and that existing enforcement procedures made remedies difficult to obtain. "They told me none of that counts. You have to have a 30 minute video of the dog barking," Steiner said, describing officers’ guidance after she brought a year’s worth of logs, texts and shorter video clips to the police.

Steiner said she tried working with her neighbor and the homeowners association before involving law enforcement. She said fences and a mesh outdoor dog cage made it impractical to capture a continuous 30-minute clip from her line of sight. "My suggestion would be... if a complaint is made and a letter is sent to the person just telling them there's an ordinance, it would stop the behavior in most cases, and it would save law enforcement a lot of time," she told the council.

The comment came during the public-comment portion of the Holly Springs City Council’s May 21 meeting. Council members did not take formal action during the meeting to change the city’s complaint evidence standard. City staff and elected officials present acknowledged the difficulty described by Steiner and noted differences among neighboring jurisdictions’ enforcement practices but did not provide a commitment to revise procedures at the meeting.

What’s next: Steiner urged an administrative change she said would address nuisance barking more quickly; the council moved on to its consent and new-business agenda without a recorded directive to staff to review the complaint procedure.