By 
October 7, 2026
Without annexation, Huntsville would not have companies such as Mazda Toyota or Polaris or Amazon creating thousands of jobs while investing billions in construction. Without annexation, Eli Lilly and Company would not be planning a $6 billion facility in Huntsville that is the state’s largest single commercial investment.
But annexation often leads to questions, often about overwhelming schools and overcrowding roadways.
Does the City have an annexation plan?
The City, in fact, has more than a plan. It has a stringent process for adding land to its footprint.
“It always starts with the property owner,” said Thomas Nunez, the City’s Manager of Planning and Zoning Services who helps oversee the annexation process.
Annexation requests can be as simple as a landowner wanting their children to attend Huntsville City Schools or as complex as a multi-million-dollar development seeking to benefit from the use of city services. But it starts with the landowner submitting a request to the City.
Approval process
Who approves an annexation? Essentially, the Huntsville City Council and every department in City Hall.
But first, the Planning Department must deem the property eligible for annexation. Among the requirements: the property must be contiguous to the City – in other words, the property must literally be touching City property. But that contact can’t just be at a corner. There must be genuine land overlap.
The City also does not use a road’s right-of-way as a method of connecting with property desiring to be annexed – often known as lasso annexations.
Once Planning declares the property eligible for annexation, it forwards that request to every City department for review. That includes Huntsville Police and Huntsville Fire & Rescue for public safety concerns but also Public Works – which builds out the City’s sewer network, maintains roads and collects garbage.
As part of the approval process, City departments must identify potential issues in annexation the land.
“The annexation requests that have problems don’t get seen until those problems are resolved,” Nunez said.
Once City departments sign off, the request moves to Planning Commission for consideration. Its Zoning subcommittee must approve before advancing the request to the full commission for a public hearing and vote.
From there, the annexation request requires City Council approval. The public can also speak to annexation by contacting Council Members or speaking at a City Council meeting.
The City does not approve an annexation without understanding the proposed intent or use of land. Those intentions must be included in the annexation request.
“Do you want to come in and build duplexes?” Nunez said. “Do you want to build commercial retail? Do you want to build a mixed-use development?
“After it’s annexed, it typically has to be zoned at some point. So we go from annexation to zoning to make sure that the use or proposed use fits zoning ordinances.”
Impact of annexations
The annexations that tend to garner the most attention are those that are for hundreds of acres. And those annexations frequently have long-term plans attached to their request, such as the Harris Farms project in north Huntsville.
The City Council approved the request to annex 572.48 acres for Harris Farms in August 2025. Developers have since publicly announced plans to construct approximately 1,800 housing units on the annexed land.
But what about the impact on schools and roads?
“Projects of a scale of 600 homes still take five to 15 years to actually build,” Nunez said. “To use Harris Farms as an example, they have a 12-phase plan right now. But that plan is definitely going to be considered based on market demand.”
The buildout timeline immediately mitigates the impact on schools. A student in first grade may be a high school graduate before a development potentially affects a school’s enrollment.
“We work with the school system to ensure everyone is aware of population growth and housing growth patterns,” Nunez said. “We evaluate Census data, we look at mortality rates, we look at birth rates. All of those aspects come into play on the potential number of students.”
Complexities of annexations
Other variables: what age group will be living in the homes of a new development? Will they have children? How many?
What if, for example, a new development includes 100 children?
“We’re not talking about 100 newborns,” Nunez said. “We’re talking about 100 kids of all ages. They can be high schoolers, elementary school, prekindergarten. Then you throw in the factors of how many will go to private schools? How many will be homeschooled? There are many factors that go into that process.”
As for roads, the Harris Farms land is adjacent to the expanded State Route 255 (also known as the Northern Bypass).
Annexation is also a unique issue for Huntsville because it is surrounded by largely unincorporated land. The City does not bolster its population by annexing land with multiple homes. Typically, it is open farmland with one home.
And whether the property is hundreds of acres or less than one, each request must go through a strenuous approval process.
“Nothing,” Nunez said, “is sneaking in the back door.”
