(a) The authority may take by grant, appropriation, purchase, gift, devise, condemnation, or lease, and may hold, use, enjoy, and lease or dispose of real and personal property of every kind, and rights in real and personal property, within or without the authority’s jurisdiction, necessary to the full exercise of its powers. The authority may accept and hold open-space easements and purchase development credits wherever the authority may acquire real property.

(b) Priority for open-space acquisition should be focused on those lands closest, most accessible, and visible to the urban area. The remote ranchlands east of the westernmost ridgeline of the Diablo Range shall be acquired as permanent open space only through conservation easement purchases or the granting of lands or conservation easements by owners to the authority.

(c) Lands subject to the grant of an open-space easement executed and accepted by the authority in accordance with this division are enforceably restricted within the meaning of Section 8 of Article XIII of the California Constitution. An easement or other interest in real property may be dedicated for open-space purposes by the adoption of a resolution by the governing board, and any interest so dedicated may be conveyed only as provided in this section.

(d) The authority shall not validly convey an interest in any real property actually dedicated and used for open-space purposes without the consent of a majority of the voters of the authority voting at a special election called by the governing board and held for that purpose. Consent need not first be obtained for a lease of any real property for a period not exceeding 25 years if that real property remains in open-space or agricultural use for the entire duration of the lease.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 99, Sec. 7. (SB 422) Effective January 1, 2016.)