Mayor Stephanie Fisher: 67 of 540 Johnson City Homes Are Now Airbnbs

The latest episode of The Building Texas Show, titled Johnson City, Texas Has a Water Crisis Nobody's Talking About, hosted by Justin McKenzie, brings listeners inside one of the Texas Hill Country's most overlooked gateway towns. Published May 27, 2026, the conversation features Johnson City Mayor Stephanie Fisher, now in her second term, breaking down a groundwater permitting standoff, a short-term rental boom reshaping neighborhoods, and the city's strategy to convert through-traffic on the 290/281 corridor into overnight tourism dollars. The timing is pointed: Johnson City sits on the Pedernales River yet still cannot tap it for drinking water.

Across the episode, McKenzie and Fisher walk through the specific pressures squeezing the city of roughly 540 residential single-family water connections. Topic threads include:

• The Ellenberger Aquifer, a minor aquifer off the Llano Uplift, as Johnson City's sole drinking water source
• The capital improvement plan and pending pumpage permit increase before the Blanco Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District
• 200 acre-feet of Pedernales River water held under an LCRA permit that the city cannot yet harvest without millions in infrastructure
• Short-term rentals consuming 67 of 540 residential connections
• The hunt for a boutique or resort-style hotel to anchor tourism

Fisher is candid about how the city arrived at its current bind, pointing to earlier decisions that complicated today's negotiations with the groundwater district.

"There was some previous administrations that made some decisions. I think they put the cart before the horse, and that's causing us to have some questions asked. And they're just doing their due diligence. I'm glad that our groundwater district is doing what they need to do to make sure that we all have water forever," Fisher told McKenzie.

She frames a hotel, ideally on the river, as the single biggest unlock for both housing and tax base.

The deeper context is a Hill Country affordability crisis playing out on Highway 290. Johnson City is the last stop before Fredericksburg and a common cut-through to Lake LBJ, yet visitors rarely stay the night. Fisher and McKenzie discuss the assets already on the ground: the Science Mill, the LBJ National Historic Park (including the Texas White House in Stonewall and LBJ's boyhood home), the Old Settlement adjacent to the Science Mill, the Exotic Resort Zoo just north of town, and the annual fair and rodeo weekend. McKenzie also references 100-year water planning efforts in Midland and Lubbock as a contrast to Hill Country communities dependent on aquifer recharge in 15-year rainfall cycles.

About The Building Texas Show

The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, travels the state in conversation with the mayors, founders, and operators shaping Texas growth. Each episode digs into infrastructure, economic development, tourism, and community identity with the people doing the work. The show is sponsored by Chisos Boots. This episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard, and on YouTube where listeners can like and subscribe to follow the series.