SB79 Transit Oriented Development Upzoning

About the Dataset

Senate Bill 79 (SB79) requires Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to identify and map Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Zones based on proximity to qualifying transit stops.

This project develops a reproducible geospatial methodology to:

The resulting datasets will serve as the authoritative SB79 TOD geography for Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

Project Scope:

Resources

Resource Type Resource Name Description Source/Location Format Owner Version Date Acquired/Created Dependencies Usage Notes
Dataset Pedestrian Access Points Pre-defined pedestrian access points for transit agencies Box Link ZIP/Shapefile MTC Current 2026-02-18 None Agency-specific access point locations
Dataset Transit Stations Transit station location data Box Link ZIP/Shapefile MTC Current 2026-02-18 None Station geometries and attributes
API 511 GTFS Data Regional GTFS feeds for Bay Area transit agencies Box Link ZIP MTC Current 2026-02-18 None Combined regional GTFS feed
Dataset High Quality Transit Stops Caltrans-defined major BRT stops and high-frequency transit ArcGIS Online Feature Service MTC Current 2026-02-18 None Used to identify Tier 2 BRT stops
Dataset Jurisdiction Boundaries Bay Area city and county boundaries with population data ArcGIS Online Feature Service MTC Current 2026-02-18 None Population rules and geographic scope

Expected Fields

This process will generate four interrelated datasets:

SB79 Transit-Oriented Development Zones

Final policy-compliant TOD zone polygons with tier classifications and distance bands.

Field specifications to be documented during development.

Stations

Parent transit station locations (location_type = 1 in GTFS hierarchy).

Field specifications to be documented during development.

Stops

Individual transit stop/platform locations actively served by transit routes.

Field specifications to be documented during development.

Access Points

Pedestrian access locations for each transit station used as the basis for TOD zone generation.

Field specifications to be documented during development.

Running the Pipeline

The pipeline is implemented as a sequence of four Jupyter notebooks. Each notebook is self-contained and reads/writes to a shared GeoPackage (tod_database.gpkg) defined in config.py. Steps 2 and 3 are separated by a mandatory manual GIS review gate — do not skip it.

Prerequisites

Step 1 – GTFS TOD Stop Classification

Notebook: 1_gtfs_tod_stop_classification.ipynb

Loads the regional GTFS feed and Caltrans High Quality Transit Stops (HQTS) data, classifies each stop as TOD-eligible (Tier 1 or Tier 2), and writes the results to the shared GeoPackage.

Outputs written to GPKG:

No manual review required between Steps 1 and 2.

Step 2 – TOD Stop and Access Point Assignment

Notebook: 2_tod_stop_and_access_assignment.ipynb

Loads per-agency pedestrian access point datasets, normalizes and merges them into a single GeoDataFrame, joins GTFS-authoritative station_id values, then spatially assigns each TOD stop and access point to its nearest parent station using a distance-threshold buffer (EPSG:26910). Outputs both finalized layers and review layers flagging spatial conflicts and orphaned records.

Access point sources (loaded and normalized in order):

Outputs written to GPKG:

Manual GIS review required before running Step 3.

  1. Open tod_stops_review and tod_access_review in QGIS.
  2. Inspect records with valid_station_assignment = 0 or conflicts.
  3. Correct station_id assignments as needed and set valid_station_assignment = 1 for resolved records.
  4. Save the corrected layers back to the GeoPackage as tod_stops_review_v1 and tod_access_review_v1.
    Re-running Step 2 will overwrite tod_stops_review and tod_access_review but will never touch the _v1 layers.

Step 3 – Station Assignment Reintegration

Notebook: 3_tod_station_assignment_reintegration.ipynb

Reads the manually reviewed _v1 layers, merges corrections back into the main tod_stops and tod_access_points layers, and re-exports the final corrected versions to the GeoPackage.

Inputs read from GPKG:

Outputs written to GPKG:

No manual review required between Steps 3 and 4.

Step 4 – TOD Zone Buffer Generation

Notebook: 4_tod_zone_buffers.ipynb (planned)

Generates 200 ft, ¼ mile, and ½ mile Euclidean buffer zones around finalized access points, applies the policy matrix (tier precedence, jurisdictional population rules, geographic scope), and produces the final SB79 TOD Zone polygons.

Outputs written to GPKG:

Process Overview

This section describes the conceptual methodology behind the pipeline. For step-by-step execution instructions, see Running the Pipeline.

Manual Data Preparation

  1. Manually create stations for stops that will be flagged as TOD applicable, such as SFMTA light rail stops not co-located with a BART Station (e.g. Van Ness, Church, Forest Hill, Yerba Buena/Moscone, etc.), VTA light rail stops, and BRT stops.
  2. Manually create pedestrian access points for stops that will be flagged as TOD applicable following the same process as above (add guidance from HCD on what constitutes a pedestrian access point, e.g. crosswalks, sidewalks, etc.).

Load Data and Libraries

  1. Set up environment and load necessary libraries (e.g., pandas, geopandas, gtfs_kit)
  2. Load GTFS data using gtfs_kit and convert to GeoDataFrame for spatial analysis
  3. Load pedestrian access point data and transit station data as GeoDataFrames
  4. Load Caltrans High Quality Transit Stops (HQTS) data as GeoDataFrame

Prepare Data for Analysis

  1. Enrich GTFS stops with route and agency information by merging with routes and agency tables; aggregate to get lists of routes and agencies serving each stop
  2. Filter GTFS stops to include only those served by relevant transit agencies (e.g., BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SFMTA, VTA)
  3. Separate stations and stops based on GTFS hierarchy based on location_type and parent_station fields (see GTFS documentation for details)
  4. Filter Caltrans High Quality Station Stops to include only those with HQTA Type == major_stop_brt

Flag Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Stops

  1. Flag GTFS stops as TOD applicable if they are either:
    1. A stop that meets the Caltrans definition of a major BRT stop (i.e., in the filtered Caltrans dataset) using a list of stop_ids from the filtered HQTS dataset, OR
    2. A stop with route_type in [0 (Tram, Streetcar, Light rail), 1 (Subway, Metro)] (see GTFS documentation for details) or agency_id == 'CT' (Caltrain)
      1. Exceptions: Exclude stops South of Tamien Station on the Caltrain System, and BART stops within Contra Costa County.
  2. Create Transit Tier classification:
    1. Tier 1: route_type == 1 (Subway, Metro) or agency_id == 'CT' (Caltrain)
    2. Tier 2: route_type == 0 (Tram, Streetcar, Light rail) or a stop that meets the Caltrans definition of a major BRT stop (i.e., in the filtered Caltrans dataset) using a list of stop_ids from the filtered HQTS dataset.
  3. Create a final filtered GeoDataFrame of TOD applicable stops, including relevant attributes such as stop_id, stop_name, parent_station, agency_name, route_short_name, and geometry.

Associate Parent Stations with TOD Stops & Access Points

  1. Associate stops and access points with parent stations. This may be performed by spatially joining stops and access points to stations using a near spatial join with a specified distance threshold (e.g. 200 feet) though manual review and adjustments will likely be necessary to ensure accurate associations, especially in dense urban areas where multiple stations and stops may be in close proximity.

Create Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Zones

  1. Generate 200 ft, .25 mile, and .5 mile Euclidean (straight-line) buffers around all pedestrian access points by tier
  2. Intersect buffers with jurisdiction boundaries with associated population data to determine applicable zones based on the policy matrix
  3. Remove .5 mile buffers where jurisdiction population is ≤ 35,000 or in unincorporated areas
  4. Erase Tier 2 areas where overlapping with Tier 1 buffers to ensure Tier 1 precedence
  5. Dissolve by Tier and distance band to create final TOD Zone geometries
  6. Validate and review final TOD Zone geometries for accuracy and consistency with the defined criteria

Development Notes

SB79 TOD Zones – Policy Applicability Matrix

This table summarizes where Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Zones apply by Transit Tier and Jurisdiction Type. Distances are measured from pedestrian access points and represent distinct distance bands.

Where TOD Zones Apply

Tier City with Population > 35,000 City with Population ≤ 35,000 Unincorporated Area
Tier 1 0–200’
201’–1320’
1321’–2640’		 0–200’
201’–1320’		 Not Applicable
Tier 2 0–200’
201’–1320’
1321’–2640’		 0–200’
201’–1320’		 Not Applicable

Policy Constraints

  1. Tier Precedence Rule:
    • Where Tier 1 and Tier 2 zones intersect, Tier 1 supersedes Tier 2. Tier 2 geometry must be erased in overlapping areas.
  2. Geographic Scope:
    • Applies only to cities located within:
      • Alameda County
      • San Francisco County
      • San Mateo County
      • Santa Clara County
  3. Distance Bands:
    • Bands are distinct (non-cumulative):
      • 0–200 feet
      • 201–1320 feet (¼ mile ring excluding first 200 feet)
      • 1321–2640 feet (½ mile ring excluding first ¼ mile)

Technical Considerations