Ala. Code § 45-44-260.09
For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, convenience, order, prosperity, and general welfare of the county, the planning commission, with the approval of the county commission, is hereby empowered to divide the portion of the county within its zoning jurisdiction into districts. The districts shall be of such number, shape, and area as may be found best suited to carry out the purposes of this article. The planning commission, with the approval of the county commission, shall provide for standards within districts relating to the use of the land and the types and kinds of structures that may be erected in the districts, and all home remodeling or modification in such districts. Such provision shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan for the area involved and shall be designed to lessen congestion in the streets and highways; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue mixed use of land; to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water supply, sewerage, schools, parks, and other public requirements. Such provision shall be made with reasonable consideration, among other things, of the character of the land and district and its peculiar suitability for particular uses and with a view of promoting desirable living conditions, sustaining the stability of neighborhoods, protecting property against blight and depreciation, securing economy in governmental expenditures, conserving the value of buildings, and encouraging the most appropriate use of land and of buildings and structures throughout the jurisdiction of the planning commission. For the purpose of providing for the division of the territory into districts, consonant with the conditions provided in this section, the planning commission may make a single zoning plan for all the territory of the area which lies within its jurisdiction or may make and certify separate and successive zoning plans for parts of such territory which it deems suitable for urban or suburban development or which for other reasons it deems to have appropriate territorial unity for a zoning plan. Correspondingly, any zoning regulations enacted by the commission may cover and include the whole territory lying within its jurisdiction or such territory as the planning commission deems to be appropriate territorial unit for a zoning plan.
Ala. Code § 45-44-260.09 (1975)