(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Federal, state, and local governments in California are investing in new and expanded transit systems in areas throughout the state, including Los Angeles County, the San Francisco Bay area, San Diego County, Santa Clara County, and Sacramento County.

(2) This public investment in transit is unrivaled in the state’s history and represents well over ten billion dollars ($10,000,000,000) in planned investment alone.

(3) Recent studies of transit ridership in California indicate that persons who live within a one-half-mile radius of transit stations utilize the transit system in far greater numbers than does the general public living elsewhere.

(4) The greater use of public transit facilitated by the development of transit villages improves local street, road, and highway congestion by providing viable alternatives to automobile use.

(5) The development of transit village development districts can improve environmental conditions by increasing the use of public transit, facilitating the creation of and improvement to walkable, mixed-use communities, and decreasing automobile use.

(6) The development of transit village development districts throughout the state should be environmentally conscious and sustainable, and related construction should meet or exceed the requirements of the California Green Building Standards Code, Part 11 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, or its successor code.

(7) Only a few transit stations in California have any concentration of housing proximate to the station.

(8) Interest in clustering housing and commercial development around transit stations, called transit villages, has gained momentum in recent years.

(b) For purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) “Bus hub” means an intersection of three or more bus routes, with a minimum route headway of 10 minutes during peak hours.

(2) “Bus transfer station” means an arrival, departure, or transfer point for the area’s intercity, intraregional, or interregional bus service having permanent investment in multiple bus docking facilities, ticketing services, and passenger shelters.

(3) “District” means a transit village development district as defined in Section 65460.4.

(4) “Peak hours” means the time between 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., inclusive, and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., inclusive, Monday through Friday.

(5) “Transit station” means a rail or light-rail station, ferry terminal, bus hub, or bus transfer station.

(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 354, Sec. 1. (AB 987) Effective January 1, 2011.)