Ala. Code § 11-85-1
The planning commission of any municipality or the county commission of any county or any 100 citizens by signed petition may apply to the Governor for the establishment of a region for planning purposes and the appointment of a regional planning commission for such region. The Governor shall hold at least one public hearing upon any such application or petition, the time and place of which he shall officially proclaim. If the Governor finds that by reason of urban growth and development not corresponding to existing municipal boundary lines or by reason of other developments or trends in the growth and distribution of population, commerce and industry or by reason of topographic or other conditions two or more separate municipalities or the territory of one or more municipalities and neighboring nonmunicipal territory have overlapping and interrelated or common problems of such nature as not to be capable of intelligent, economical, and adequate solution by means of the separate planning of each separate political unit and require for such solution a general plan of the physical development of the entire area of such municipalities or territories as a whole and that, consequently, it is to the public interest that a region be established for planning purposes, he shall grant the application and shall define the boundaries of such region and appoint a regional planning commission.
Ala. Code § 11-85-1 (1975)