Encinitas will explore rezoning the city-owned, “L-7” property to officially declare it public park land, but making this change may require voter approval under the city’s growth control regulations. “This should be a park,” Councilmember Jim O’Hara said after introducing the item and hearing from a dozen public speakers late Wednesday. “Our kids want a park, our future wants a park. That’s what we’re hearing …. I think to deny a park in this instance is criminal.” Councilmember Luke Shaffer, who joined O’Hara in requesting that the item be put on the agenda, called the zoning change “common sense” and noted that L-7 —  nearly 9.4-acre property that straddles the 600 block of Quail Gardens Drive — is in a region where open agricultural land was once the norm. “I think it’s screams Encinitas and what it once was,” he said of the park proposal. However, changing the land’s zoning from residential to public/semi-public will take time, the city attorney cautioned. The item needs city Planning Commission approval and will likely be required to obtain voter approval under the terms of the city’s growth-control ordinance, City Attorney Tarquin Preziosi said. Earlier this month, when the council was considering whether to fill a newly vacated council seat via appointment or special election, City Clerk Kathy Hollywood said that the soonest Encinitas could hold a special election would be Aug. 26. Hosting one would cost $275,000 to $450,000, depending on whether it was a mail-in-ballot election or a polling place one, she said. Now that the council has officially made the request to explore rezoning L-7, city employees said Wednesday that they will return at a later council meeting with a report on the costs and issues involved in doing it. While O’Hara and Shaffer said Wednesday that they would like to rezone L-7 and any other city parkland that isn’t currently zoned as open space, Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he wasn’t sure the city needed to do a rezone. Ehlers, who authorized the city’s growth-control measure, said he agrees with the city attorney that voter approval would be required for a rezone. He suggested that the council seek a major use permit for the park project, instead of rezoning the land. Encinitas purchased the L-7 property in 1999 using city park funds. Over the years since, it’s been proposed as a future home for everything from a library to a public works yard. The most recent proposal involved a low-income housing project. The city hit the pause button on that effort in mid-November after two council members who backed it lost their election bids and a third didn’t seek re-election. The housing proposal had generated intense community opposition, particularly since the Quail Gardens Drive region is already a hotbed of new housing construction with some 1,1100 units in the works. In July, area resident Glen Johnson offered to donate $100,000 to the city if it would drop the housing project idea, turn the property into a park and name it after his wife. He’s not the only one who has offered the city money; Oliver Pratt, a 10-year-old who lives near the property, has been selling used golf balls and collecting donations online to make the property into a park. On Wednesday, Johnson said his offer still stands and Oliver said his fundraising now totaled $15,000. “Once it’s approved (as a park land), I will work even harder,” Oliver vowed.