The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this chapter have the following meanings, respectively, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

(a) “Public authority” means any city of any class, city and county, county of any class, public corporation or district having powers to provide recreation, or school district in the state.

(b) “Governing body” means, in the case of a city, the city council, municipal council, or common council; in the case of a county or city and county, the board of supervisors; in the case of a public corporation or district, the governing board of the public corporation or district; and in the case of a school district, the governing board of the school district.

(c) “Recreation” means any activity, voluntarily engaged in, which contributes to the physical, mental, or moral development of the individual or group participating therein, and includes any activity in the fields of visual and performing arts, handicraft, science, literature, nature study, nature contacting, aquatic sports, and athletics, or any of them, and any informal play incorporating any such activity.

(d) “Community recreation” and “public recreation” mean the recreation as may be engaged in under direct control of a public authority, or any camping or outdoor recreation activity which is (1) sponsored by a nonprofit organization, (2) for the benefit of disadvantaged or handicapped schoolage children, and (3) in a county with a population less than or equal to 45,000 according to the most recent federal census.

(e) “Nonprofit organization” means those nonprofit organizations which, as determined by the governing board of the school district, are unable to pay for the private transportation of disadvantaged or handicapped schoolage children to recreation activities.

(f) “Recreation center” means a place, structure, area, or other facility under the jurisdiction of a governing body of a public authority used for community recreation whether or not it may be used primarily for other purposes, playgrounds, playing fields or courts, beaches, lakes, rivers, swimming pools, gymnasiums, auditoriums, libraries, parks adjacent to school sites, recreational community gardens, rooms for arts and crafts, camps, and meeting places.

Playgrounds, outdoor playing fields or courts, swimming pools, and camps, with necessary equipment and appurtenances for their operation, under the jurisdiction of a governing board of a public authority used for community recreation shall be considered recreation centers within the meaning of this chapter whether or not they may be used primarily for other purposes.

(Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 734, Sec. 7. Effective October 11, 2001.)