(a) The history of cities and the course of legislatures throughout America, including the Alabama Legislature, confirm that public welfare requires that cities of 300,000 or more population, and parking authorities thereof, be authorized to provide off-street parking facilities. (b) The Law Review of National Institute of Municipal Law Officers (1968 Ed.) reports that prior to World War II there were almost no municipal off-street parking facilities, and that a survey made in 1966, covering 1,517 cities showed that “fully 48 percent of municipal parking spaces are located in off-street lots and garages.” State legislatures throughout the Union have provided for cities to furnish off-street parking facilities. (c) By Act 90 of the 2nd Extra Session of 1965 (Ala. Acts, 2nd and 3rd Special Sessions, 1965, p. 119) this Legislature declared that because of the serious traffic congestion on streets of cities having a population of between 70,000 and 120,000 and the inadequacy of off-street parking facilities therein, public welfare required the Legislature to authorize such cities to provide off-street parking facilities, which Act 90 did. (d) It is hereby declared that the free circulation of traffic on the streets of cities having a population of 300,000 or more is necessary to the health, safety, and general welfare of the public; that the greatly increased use of motor vehicles has caused serious traffic congestion on the streets of such cities; that the parking of motor vehicles has contributed to such congestion; that such congestion prevents the free flow of traffic through such cities, impedes effective firefighting and the disposition of police forces, and threatens irreparable loss in the values of urban property, which can no longer be readily reached by vehicular traffic; that parking facilities in such cities are grossly inadequate; that private enterprise has not been able to solve the problem, because private parking lots are frequently temporary in nature, located without regard for actual parking requirements, with vacant land being used for parking purposes in more or less haphazard fashion, to earn something from the land pending some construction thereon; that as a consequence of the extreme shortage of parking space in the central business districts of the city those operating parking facilities impose upon the public by charging grossly excessive and oppressive fees for parking; that the inadequacy of parking space is harmful to the public convenience, health,safety, and welfare; that the inadequate off-street parking spaces now existing must be forthwith supplemented by off-street parking facilities provided by public undertaking; and that the enactment of this subpart is hereby declared to be a public necessity which the public welfare and convenience require.
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