(A) The Council finds that:
(1) Air pollution constitutes a significant detriment to public health and welfare; that exhaust emissions from motor vehicles are the major source of air pollution in Albuquerque.
(2) An effective system of periodic motor vehicle inspection, maintenance, and consumer education will reduce the level of vehicular air pollution and provide motorists with objective maintenance information regarding their vehicles.
(3) The federal government has mandated to the several states and municipalities the primary responsibility for periodic motor vehicle inspection and maintenance, and that a mandatory inspection and maintenance program must be implemented to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7401 through 7671, as it may be amended from time to time.
(4) The federal and state law accommodate special limited extensions of time for compliance in cases of extensive cost or difficulty of repair, as necessary in unusual cases to avoid unnecessarily burdensome regulations.
(5) Certain small or declining classes of motor vehicles may exist which have designs, modifications, or special uses which may justify exclusion of such classes from all or part of the operation of this article, consistent with federal and state law.
(B) The purposes of this article are to:
(1) Protect the health and welfare of the citizens of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County; and
(2) Provide for the control and regulation of carbon monoxide emissions from motor vehicles above certain levels as determined by the Board; and
(3) Require biennial mandatory inspection of certain motor vehicles in order to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, as amended; and
(4) Accomplish the other purposes of this article while allowing a reasonable time for acquiring and paying for unusual motor vehicle repairs which may be necessary to comply with the Board's regulatory requirements, recognizing the serious economic impact that such repair expenses might otherwise have on some persons when unusually expensive repairs are required; and
(5) Accomplish the other purposes of this article while avoiding unreasonable or overly burdensome regulation by excluding certain classes of vehicles from the requirements of this article, which classes do not significantly contribute collectively to the ambient air pollution levels in Bernalillo County and which cannot comply with the regulatory requirements except with unreasonable cost or difficulty; and
(6) Eliminate sanctions imposed by the federal government due to noncompliance with federal requirements, and to avoid the imposition of additional sanctions by the Environmental Protection Agency.
('74 Code, § 9-1-2) (Ord. 47-1987)