The city of Huntsville grew by 112 acres on Thursday night.

That includes more than 91 acres in Limestone County and another 21 acres in Madison County. The action by the City Council pushes Alabama’s most populated city beyond 227 square miles.

The city has taken in more than 500 acres this year, most of it in Limestone County. According to Manager of Planning and Zoning Services Thomas Nunez, the earlier annexation pushed Huntsville past Chicago to become the 27th largest city in the U.S. geographically.

See story: Huntsville’s Limestone annexation a game-changer? 4,000 homes may be coming

According to census tract data, Chicago isn’t the only major city Huntsville has a larger land mass than. Huntsville is larger than New Orleans (169.5 square miles), Denver (153.1 square miles), Las Vegas (141.9 square miles) and Philadelphia (134.3 square miles).

Just above Huntsville on the list are Virginia Beach (244 square miles) and Tucson, Arizona (242 square miles). Sitka, Alaska, is the largest city in America at a little more than 2,800 square miles with a population of only 8,500.

Thursday’s annexations added more than 91 acres of land north of Bibb Garrett Road and west of Mooresville Road in an area east of Interstate 65 and north of I-565 in Limestone County, and 21 acres north of Miller Lane and west of U.S. 431 South.

The Limestone annexation comes at the request of a petition by the Fennel-Noble family. The property is near an automobile supplier and an industrial park. Shane Davis, director of Urban and Economic Development, said the property will likely be zoned for industrial use.

The Madison County annexation comes at the request of property owner Elizabeth A. Witt. The property is in the Hampton Cove area. Davis said the property owner intends to develop a single-family residential neighborhood.

It is adjacent to single family home subdivisions. Davis said the property will likely receive a residential zoning.

Huntsville’s city limits now stretch from the Owens Cross Roads area in the east to almost U.S. 31 in the west between Decatur and Athens and from northern Madison County near the Tennessee state line to the south across the Tennessee River and into eastern Morgan County.

But most of the acreage in recent annexations have come in Limestone County, which has led to a mixture of industrial and residential developments with Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Amazon and Polaris manufacturing facilities and the massive Greenbrier Preserve development, where construction has started on the first of more than 1,100 homes planned at the site.

More than 200 homes in the development have already received final approval or are under construction.

A Village of Providence-style development is planned for the 394 acres annexed in January, with between 2,500 and 4,000 homes proposed with housing to include apartments, townhomes and duplexes. Retail is also planned for the development, which will include a city center.

Davis said in January that the city has made utility, sewer and public safety investments in the area.