At its meeting on Thursday, the Huntsville City Council will decide whether to annex over 1,000 acres.
The property is split between Marshall County in the northwest and Morgan County in the northeast. The city limits of Huntsville will encompass four counties, including Madison and Limestone, if granted.
The agenda package’s documents don’t include the property’s plans. South of the Tennessee River, near the Lacey’s Spring neighborhood in the southeast of the city, the property shares a border with Huntsville-annexed territory. It lies east and west of Vaughn Road and south of River Loop Road.
After only annexing 85 acres in 2024, Huntsville has already annexed over 600 acres this year. With more than 227 square miles, the Rocket City is now the 37th largest city in the country—geographically comparable to Chicago and San Francisco—as a result of this year’s annexations.
Data from census tracts shows that Huntsville is bigger than:
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New Orleans (169.5 square miles)
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Denver (153.1 square miles)
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Las Vegas (141.9 square miles)
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Philadelphia (134.3 square miles).
Hollingshead Materials, LLC and Wiz Kidz, LLC are identified as the property’s owners for voting purposes.
John Wisda, the manager of Wiz Kidz, was involved in Huntsville’s 2018 annexation of over 659 acres in Morgan County. At the time, the annexation across the river was supposed to include residential and recreational development.
On land that the city has already acquired this year, commercial, industrial, and residential developments are being proposed. Michelle Watkins, a member of the Huntsville public Council, has expressed worries about residential development annexations due to the possibility of overflowing public schools.
Watkins abstained in the vote on 121 acres on June 26 where more than 100 homes are proposed off Little Cove Road and voted against the annexation of about 400 acres earlier this year near the Interstate 65-565 intersection where over 3,000 residences are proposed.
Land has not been the only factor in Huntsville’s expansion. With over 230,000 residents, it has been the most populous city in the state for a number of years and continues to attract more people every year than any other place in the state.
Additionally, on Thursday, the city council will vote to schedule a public hearing for August 28 to zoning over 27 acres that were annexed earlier this year north of Buford Drive and west of Old Big Cove Road. The site is owned by Breland Companies, the company that developed Clift Farm and Town Madison. The development calls for the construction of single-family houses.
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