The Peoria City Council has signed off on spending millions of dollars to expand the Sunrise Mountain Preserve.

The roughly 124-acre addition near 91st Avenue and Happy Valley Road comes with a price tag of about $7 million, half of which will be paid over the next two years. This is the second year in a row the city has taken steps to grow the protected area.

Peoria will buy the land from a development company. The deal is part of the city’s broader efforts to conserve open spaces in the northwest Valley, and it increases the Sunrise Mountain Preserve area by nearly 65 percent.