Before the governing board of a school district enters into a lease or agreement pursuant to this article, it shall have available a site upon which a building to be used by the district may be constructed and shall have complied with the provisions of law relating to the selection and approval of sites, and it shall have prepared and shall have adopted plans and specifications for the building that have been approved pursuant to Sections 17280 to 17316, inclusive. A district has a site available for the purposes of this section under any of the following conditions:

(a) If it owns a site or if it has an option on a site that allows the school district or the designee of the district to purchase the site. Any school district may acquire and pay for an option containing such a provision.

(b) If it is acquiring a site by eminent domain proceedings and pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 1255.010) of Title 7 of Part 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the district has obtained an order for possession of the site, and the entire amount deposited with the court as the probable amount of compensation for the taking has been withdrawn.

(c) In the case of a district qualifying under Section 17410, if it is leasing a site from a governmental agency pursuant to a lease having an original term of 35 years or more or having an option to renew that, if exercised, would extend the term to at least 35 years.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)