(a) Pursuant to the authority of subdivision (d) of Section 4 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, and in accordance with subdivision (b) of this section, all real property that is necessarily and reasonably required for the parking of automobiles of persons who are attending religious services, or are engaged in religious services or worship or any religious activity, is exempt from taxation.

(b) For purposes of the exemption established by subdivision (a), all of the following shall apply:

(1) “Real property” means land and improvements or a possessory interest in land and improvements.

(2) The real property is not required to be contiguous to the land on which the church or other structure used for religious services or as the place of worship or religious activity is located.

(3) The real property is not at other times used for commercial purposes. For purposes of this paragraph, “commercial purposes” does not include use of the property for the parking of vehicles or bicycles, the revenue from which does not exceed the ordinary and necessary costs of maintaining the real property.

(4) The exemption shall apply to otherwise qualifying land and improvements regardless of whether the land and improvements are owned by the church, religious denomination, or sect using the land and improvements for the parking of automobiles by persons described in subdivision (a). However, the exemption shall apply to land and improvements that are not owned by the church, religious denomination, or sect using the land and improvements for the parking of automobiles by persons described in subdivision (a) only as long as all of the following conditions are met:

(A) The congregation of the church, religious denomination, or sect is no greater than 500 members.

(B) The church, religious denomination, or sect is engaged in a lease of the land and improvements for the exclusive purpose of the parking of automobiles by persons described in subdivision (a).

(C) The church, religious denomination, or sect is responsible, under the terms of its lease with the fee owner of the land and improvements, for paying the property taxes levied on the land and improvements. For purposes of this subparagraph, paying property taxes levied on land and improvements includes reimbursement paid to the fee owner of the land and improvements for those taxes.

(D) The real property is used exclusively for the parking of automobiles by persons described in subdivision (a).

(E) The fee owner of the real property and the county agree that the fee owner shall pay the total amount of taxes that would be levied on the real property for the current fiscal year and the first two subsequent fiscal years in the absence of a grant of exemption pursuant to this paragraph for the current fiscal year, if the real property is used for any purpose other than that specified in subparagraph (D) during either of those two subsequent fiscal years.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1169, Sec. 3. Effective September 30, 1996.)