Wimberley STR Rules: CUP, STR 1 vs STR 2, August 20 Hearing

Jacob Mishalanie
Aug 16
16 min read

Updated: 18 hours ago

Airbnb is legal in the City of Wimberley only after City Council issues a Conditional Use Permit. That is the live sentence on cityofwimberley.com/324 as this draft opened it on August 16, 2026. It is not a permitted use by right in the residential or commercial categories as that page stood. AirROI's Wimberley file, updated August 8, 2026, still prints regulation as Low and finds no licensed listings among the 638 it analyzed. That badge is wrong for an incorporated Hays County parcel. Do not paste it into a feasibility memo. Do not treat a live platform calendar as a permit. The clerk is Planning. The vote is Council.

STR 1 on that page means the owner lives on the property where the guest facility is rented. STR 2 means the owner does not. Neighbors within 200 feet are notified. If 20 percent or more of contiguous property owners, counted by land area, oppose the application, Council needs a supermajority of 4 of 5. Typical processing is 45 to 60 days. The application fee is non-refundable. The live page does not print a dollar on that fee, so this cluster will not invent one. On approval the guest bill carries state hotel occupancy tax at 6 percent plus city hotel occupancy tax at 7 percent.

The same page, opened August 16, led with proposed amendments, not a moratorium headline. The proposal would cut new STR 2 CUPs in R-2 and R-3, allow lodging of up to 30 units by right in C1, C2, and C3, and change STR 1 in accessory dwellings. Planning and Zoning sat August 13. Council is August 20, 2026, 6:00 p.m., City Hall, 221 Stillwater. This draft will not invent that vote. Hays Free Press on March 11, 2026 dated a temporary moratorium through July 4, 2026. Open /324 the morning you file.

Every city STR needs a CUP

cityofwimberley.com/324 is the primary page this cluster opened. It says every short-term rental in the city needs a Conditional Use Permit. The owner applies. The Planning Department manages the file. City Council takes the final vote. That stack is the whole legal product. A platform listing, a Superhost badge, and a Hill Country Premier URL are not substitutes. AirROI's August 8, 2026 Wimberley snapshot of 638 listings is a vendor file. It is not the clerk. Themarket reportalready told you the Low badge is wrong. This page opens the statute the badge ignored.

A CUP is not a by-right use in the residential or commercial categories as the page stood on August 16, 2026. If you underwrite a house as if the zoning already allows Saturday guests, you are underwriting a vote that has not happened. Typical processing is 45 to 60 days. That is a calendar, not a weekend. Walk the parcel, walk the 200-foot neighbor list, and read the proposed ordinance before you write a check for a non-refundable fee the live page will not price for you. Thestartuppost is that cash stack once the live fee is in your hand.

Failure can revoke a CUP. The live page names septic, parking, noise, dark-sky lighting, and any conditions Council attaches, including a maximum occupancy. An approved CUP amends the zoning and, in the page text this draft opened, remains on the property indefinitely. That sentence is why buyers care. It is also why a neighbor who missed the 200-foot letter still has a later complaint path if the house violates the conditions. Photograph the parking. Count the septic bedrooms. Do not advertise an occupancy Council did not write.

This is a city product. The City of Wimberley is not Hays County, not Dripping Springs, and not Fredericksburg. A Cypress Creek lot inside the city polygon sits on this page. A Jacob's Well-adjacent parcel in unincorporated Hays County sits on a different desk. Pull the map before you file. Theinvestmentpost is what a buyer does with a live CUP versus a hope. This page is the form.

STR 1 is owner-on-property. STR 2 is not. STR 1, as the city page defines it, is the case where the owner lives on the property where the guest facility is rented. It says every short-term rental in the city needs a Conditional Use Permit. If 20 percent or more of the contiguous property owners, measured by land area, oppose the application, City Council needs a supermajority of 4 of 5 to approve.

STR 1, as the city page defines it, is the case where the owner lives on the property where the guest facility is rented. STR 2 is the case where the owner does not reside on the property. Those two letters are the whole occupancy question the application asks. They are not marketing language. They are not Superhost language. An owner who sleeps in Austin and rents the Wimberley house is STR 2, even if the listing title says owner hosted. An owner who lives in the main house and rents a cabin on the same lot is STR 1, if that is still how the live page reads the week you file.

The proposed ordinance on the same page, not passed as of August 16, 2026, would remove the ability to obtain a new STR 2 CUP in R-2 and R-3. It would also change how STR 1 works in accessory dwelling units. Those two sentences are why the STR 1 versus STR 2 split is not trivia this week. A buyer who closes on a vacant R-2 house and assumes a new STR 2 CUP will print is assuming a path the Council agenda was written to close. Verify the August 20 outcome before you wire earnest money on that theory.

Do not invent a third type because a platform has a category called boutique hotel or guest suite. The city page this draft opened named two. Lodging of up to 30 units by right in C1, C2, and C3 is a proposed commercial path, not a current residential shortcut, and it is not passed as of this draft. If your pin is commercial, ask Planning how the live zoning treats it today, not how the proposal would treat it after a vote this page will not invent.

Thehow-to-marketpost can name Blue Hole and the square in the same Saturday. This post cannot name STR 1 and STR 2 as if they were the same application. Write the letter that matches the bed you sleep in. If you do not sleep on the property, do not file as if you do. Council reads the file. Neighbors read the letter. A false STR 1 is a complaint waiting for a Saturday.

200-foot notice and the 4-of-5 supermajority

Neighbors within 200 feet of the property are notified. That is a measured radius, not a vibe about who might care. Walk it. Count the lots. Read the names on the appraisal district map before you pay a non-refundable fee. If 20 percent or more of the contiguous property owners, measured by land area, oppose the application, City Council needs a supermajority of 4 of 5 to approve. A 3-2 vote that would have carried an unopposed file does not carry an opposed one. That is the live rule this draft opened. Confirm it on /324 the week you apply.

Land area is the unit, not headcount. One large lot can outweigh three small ones. A creek-front tract with a single owner who does not want Saturday traffic can be the 20 percent by itself. Do not treat a friendly conversation on the porch as the opposition math. The letter is the record. The land-area tally is the trigger. If you have not added the acres, you have not done the homework the Council packet will do without you.

Typical processing is 45 to 60 days. That window includes notice, a Planning file, and a Council date. It does not include the week you spend arguing with a title company about whether the current use is already legal. Existing valid CUPs, the live page said, remain in force. A house without one is not a house with a quiet grandfather. It is a house that still needs the letter, the 200-foot walk, and the vote. Thefinancepost is the loan stack. Lenders who want a CUP before closing are not being difficult. They are reading the same page.

Bring the neighbor list to the counter. Bring the septic letter, the parking count, and a sentence about dark-sky lighting that matches what you will actually install. Council conditions can include a maximum occupancy. If the house sleeps twelve on the platform and Council writes eight, the platform number is the violation. Rewrite the listing the day the CUP prints. TheDIYpost is whether you hire someone to keep that listing honest. Compliance is still your name on the application.

Six percent state HOT plus seven percent city HOT

On approval, the guest bill carries Texas state hotel occupancy tax at 6 percent plus City of Wimberley hotel occupancy tax at 7 percent. That is the live tax sentence this draft will lock. Platforms often collect on platform bookings. Direct bookings are your return. Do not invent a third local layer because a Hill Country blog added a county number you have not opened. Do not invent a combined all-in percentage and put it in a listing as if the city printed it that way.

Those percents are not the CUP. They are what you owe after the CUP exists. A host who remits hotel occupancy tax on a house that never received Council approval is not laundering the use into legality. A host who has the CUP and forgets the 7 percent city layer is handing the city a different complaint. Keep the permit letter and the tax account in the same folder. Thestartuppost will not invent the application-fee dollar. It will tell you the tax stack is not optional once you are approved.

Hays Free Press on February 11, 2026, quoting Tourism Director Michele Woods, put about 1.3 million visitor days in the city in 2025 and 125 lodging establishments inside the city. That is a newspaper paraphrase of a city official. It is not your tax return and not a reason to skip the 7 percent. Texas statewide visitor spending of $97.5 billion and 62 million travelers in 2024 is a Governor / Travel Texas layer. Do not divide it by 638 AirROI listings. Do not divide it by 125 lodging establishments. Thetourism datapost keeps those scales apart.

Pass the taxes through on the guest bill the way the page describes. Do not hide them inside a cleaning fee. AirROI already shows a $150 average clean and a 2.8-night stay. Stacking an undeclared 13 percent into that clean is how you earn the review and the audit. State the 6 and the 7. Keep the clean as the clean.

What the live page said about existing CUPs

Existing valid CUPs, the city page said on August 16, 2026, remain in full force and continue indefinitely without renewal. They cannot be terminated except by a Council zoning amendment. Write that as the live page. Then re-read the page after August 20. A sentence that is true on a Saturday draft can be a different sentence after a Thursday hearing. This cluster will not invent that the hearing already rewrote the grandfather.

That indefinite run, if it still stands after the vote, is the scarce asset. A house with a valid CUP in a city that is proposing to cut new STR 2 product in R-2 and R-3 is not the same asset as a vacant R-2 lot with a pretty creek photo. Theinvestmentpost is that scarcity. This page is the citation. Do not tell a lender the permit is perpetual because a broker said so. Tell the lender what /324 said the morning you printed it, and attach the print.

An approved CUP amends zoning and remains on the property indefinitely, in the page text this draft opened. Failure to meet septic, parking, noise, dark-sky, or occupancy conditions can still revoke it. Indefinite is not unconditional. A host who treats the letter as a permanent hall pass and then advertises sixteen guests on a four-bedroom septic is volunteering for the revocation hearing. Keep the conditions in the house rules. Keep the parking count honest. Keep the dark-sky fixtures on the fixtures.

If you are buying, ask for the CUP document, not a verbal. Confirm it is valid, confirm the conditions, and confirm the address matches the parcel. A listing that says permitted STR on the day you tour can be a listing that never had the letter, or had it on a different lot. City Hall is at 221 Stillwater. The page is /324. Use both. Thefinancepost will not treat a verbal permit as debt-service coverage.

Proposed ordinance and the August 20 hearing

The live city page, opened August 16, 2026, led with proposed changes from the STR Subcommittee. Three are named in the lock for this cluster. First, remove the ability to obtain a new STR 2, non-owner-occupied, CUP in R-2 and R-3. Second, allow short-term lodging facilities of up to 30 units by right in C1, C2, and C3. Third, change how STR 1 works in accessory dwelling units. Those are proposed. They are not passed as of this draft. Do not underwrite any of them as current law.

Hearings on that proposal: Planning and Zoning on August 13, 2026, which is already past as of this draft, and City Council on August 20, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., City Hall, 221 Stillwater. Today, for this file, is August 16. The P&Z night was three days ago. The Council night is four days away. This page will not invent the August 20 vote. It will not invent a P&Z recommendation you have not opened. Open the live page after that Thursday and write what the page then says.

If the STR 2 cut in R-2 and R-3 passes, new non-owner product in those districts closes. Existing valid CUPs, if the indefinite language still stands, remain the stock that can still operate. That is a marketing fact as much as a legal one. A 638-listing file with 10.8 percent more supply than last year does not automatically keep adding STR 2 doors in R-2 after a close. Thehow-to-marketpost is how the remaining doors compete. This page is why the remaining doors may be the only new-to-you doors.

The 30-unit by-right commercial path, if it passes, is a different product from a creek cottage. It is lodging in C1, C2, and C3, up to 30 units, proposed as by right. Do not read that as permission to put 30 units on an R-2 lot. Do not read the STR 1 accessory-dwelling change as already in force. Ask Planning, in writing, how your specific zoning district is treated the morning after the vote. Keep the email. A Facebook summary of the hearing is not the ordinance.

The July 4 moratorium news date is not the live page

Hays Free Press on March 11, 2026 reported that Council had extended a temporary moratorium 120 days through July 4, 2026. That is a dated newspaper sentence. It is not an August 16 statute. The brief that said the moratorium ran into August 2026 is stale against that article. The live city page this draft opened did not lead with a moratorium headline. It led with the proposed ordinance and the August 20 hearing. Do not write that a moratorium is still in force unless /324 says so the morning you publish.

A host who tells a buyer we cannot apply, there is a moratorium, on August 16, 2026, is repeating a March news date. A host who tells a buyer we can apply and it will be easy is ignoring the CUP, the 200-foot letter, and a live proposal to cut new STR 2 product in R-2 and R-3. Both sentences are wrong in different directions. The accurate sentence is: open the page, read the current process, and treat August 20 as a date that can change the next sentence.

This cluster will keep the news date labeled as news. July 4, 2026, is the end date the March 11 article printed. August 20, 2026, is the Council hearing the live page printed. Those are two different documents. Fuse them and you get a fake emergency or a fake all-clear. Themarket reportalready refused to treat the July 4 news date as an August 16 statute. This page repeats the refusal because this is the URL a buyer will send a lender.

If you filed during the window the newspaper described, keep the receipt. If you are filing after July 4 and before or after August 20, file against the live page, not against the clipping. Planning is the desk that will tell you whether applications are being accepted today. A reporter is not that desk. Neither is AirROI. Neither is this paragraph after the page changes.

City of Wimberley is not Hays County and not Dripping Springs

The City of Wimberley is a Hays County city on the Blanco River and Cypress Creek. Its STR page governs parcels inside the city. Unincorporated Hays County is a different clerk. Jacob's Well is a karst spring near town, a Hays County / park pin, not the city square. Blue Hole Regional Park is a city Cypress Creek swim pin. Caption them. Do not file a city CUP for a county parcel, and do not skip the city CUP because the guest will spend Saturday at a county spring.

Dripping Springs appears on AirROI's nearby table at 405 listings, named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 a month, $414 ADR, and 30 percent occupancy. That is a neighbor file. It is not tonight's cluster and not tonight's clerk. Caption it. Do not paste a Dripping Springs permit story onto a Wimberley APN. Do not paste Wimberley's CUP onto a Dripping Springs APN. Fredericksburg is leftover 070, a Gillespie County wine-trophy comparison. This page will not invent its ordinance or its ADR. Canyon Lake is a Comal pin. Stop there.

The May 2015 Blanco River flood killed 12 people. That is context for why this corridor treats lodging tightly. It is not a reason to publish a Gulf hurricane post on a Wimberley URL, and it is not an invented insurance premium. Ask a Texas agent about river and creek flood zones before you underwrite a cypress lot. Theinvestmentpost is that underwriting. Thevisitor guideis the pin a guest can actually swim.

If you only remember one line, remember this: the pin decides the clerk, the clerk decides the CUP, and AirROI does not run either office. Open cityofwimberley.com/324 if you are in the city. Ask Hays County if you are not. Do not call Dripping Springs unless the parcel is in Dripping Springs, which this cluster is not. Theshoulderpost can price February. This post cannot price a permit you do not have. File the letter that matches the map.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Airbnb legal in Wimberley, TX?

Yes, if City Council issues a Conditional Use Permit. cityofwimberley.com/324, opened August 16, 2026, says every city STR needs a CUP. AirROI's Low regulation badge is wrong. Do not treat a platform listing as a permit. Airbnb is legal in the City of Wimberley only after City Council issues a Conditional Use Permit. It says every short-term rental in the city needs a Conditional Use Permit.

What is the difference between STR 1 and STR 2?

STR 1 means the owner lives on the property where the guest facility is rented. STR 2 means the owner does not. Those are the two types the live city page named. A proposed ordinance would cut new STR 2 CUPs in R-2 and R-3. Verify the August 20, 2026 vote. STR 1, as the city page defines it, is the case where the owner lives on the property where the guest facility is rented.

What does the 200-foot notice rule do?

Neighbors within 200 feet are notified. If 20 percent or more of contiguous owners, by land area, oppose the application, Council needs a supermajority of 4 of 5. Walk the lots before you pay a non-refundable fee the page does not price. If 20 percent or more of the contiguous property owners, measured by land area, oppose the application, City Council needs a supermajority of 4 of 5 to approve.

How much is the Wimberley CUP application fee?

The city page says the fee is non-refundable and does not print a dollar. This cluster will not invent one. Typical processing is 45 to 60 days. Open /324 the week you apply. The live page does not print a dollar on that fee, so this cluster will not invent one. Open the live page after that Thursday and write what the page then says.

What hotel taxes apply after approval?

State hotel occupancy tax at 6 percent plus City of Wimberley hotel occupancy tax at 7 percent, passed through on the guest bill. Platforms often collect on platform stays. Direct bookings are your return. Those percents are not a substitute for the CUP. On approval, the guest bill carries Texas state hotel occupancy tax at 6 percent plus City of Wimberley hotel occupancy tax at 7 percent.

Do existing CUPs expire?

The live page on August 16, 2026 said existing valid CUPs remain in full force indefinitely without renewal and cannot be terminated except by a Council zoning amendment. Re-read /324 after the August 20 hearing. Indefinite is not unconditional: conditions can still revoke. Existing valid CUPs, the city page said on August 16, 2026, remain in full force and continue indefinitely without renewal.

Is there still a moratorium in August 2026?

Hays Free Press on March 11, 2026 dated an extension through July 4, 2026. The live city page this draft opened led with a proposed ordinance and the August 20 Council hearing, not a moratorium headline. The live city page this draft opened did not lead with a moratorium headline. Hays Free Press on March 11, 2026 reported that Council had extended a temporary moratorium 120 days through July 4, 2026.

Does the city CUP cover Jacob's Well or Dripping Springs?

The CUP attaches to a City of Wimberley parcel. Jacob's Well is a Hays County / park pin. Dripping Springs is a neighbor city and a neighbor AirROI file. File with the clerk that matches the pin. Jacob's Well is a karst spring near town, a Hays County / park pin, not the city square.

Keep going on Crest & Cove:the Crest & Cove intro·local SEO keywords that actually book·the five elements of a converting hero·how to compare STR marketing agencies·Asheville paddling spots worth the drive·this cluster on named-town facts·Destin against AirROI, not leftover year·the last cluster against named-town facts.

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