Encinitas ought to continue to negotiate with a man who is willing to donate $100,000 to turn a city-owned site into a park, but the city shouldn’t grant him naming rights or usage restrictions, city parks commissioners said Monday. During a special, two-hour session, commissioners quickly voted to support the idea of turning the now-vacant, nearly 9.4-acre property at 634 Quail Gardens Drive into a park. That was a “somewhat obvious decision for us, given that we’re park lovers,” commission Chair Ross Ridder said after the vote. The much harder issue, which dominated most of the evening’s debate, was how to handle the financial proposal. In July, Encinitas resident Glen Johnson sent an email to the mayor offering to donate $100,000 if the city would turn the Quail Gardens Drive property into a park, instead of putting low-income housing there, as has recently been proposed. In exchange for his $100,000 donation, Johnson asked that the future park be named in memory of his wife Sally, and he requested that the area become more like a nature reserve with trails and benches, rather than an active parkland with sports fields. The City Council then directed the Parks and Recreation Commission to review Johnson’s donation proposal and issue a recommendation. Commissioners started that process last month and continued that debate at the special meeting. At the start of their deliberations Monday, Johnson told them that he thought the Quail Gardens region, which is being hit with many new housing developments of late, needs a “quiet park.” He suggested that the city add a few parking spaces, a gazebo structure and “as many native trees as we can afford.” He’s not the only one offering to give the city money to create a Quail Gardens Drive park. Oliver Pratt, a 10-year-old who lives near the property, has been selling used golf balls and collecting donations online from parkland supporters. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to attend Monday’s meeting, but his grandmother told the commissioners that he’s raised more than $12,000. Commissioners said they were thrilled by this outpouring of public support for a park, but expressed concerns about accepting Johnson’s proposed donation. Granting naming rights would be a first for Encinitas, Ritter noted. The city has several parks, including Leo Mullen Sports Park, that celebrate a person’s name, but those were established before the city incorporated in 1986, he said. In 2016, the Mizel family offered to give $1.5 million to the city and $500,000 to a friends of the library organization in exchange for getting to rename the Encinitas Library. The council turned that request down, Ritter noted. Commissioners also expressed concerns Monday about Johnson’s request to make the potential park a nature area with trails. “I don’t feel like one individual should get to decide what people should do with their parkland,” Ritter said, mentioning that he supported Johnson’s idea of a passive park but thought the city’s residents should get to have their say. Neighbors might want one kind of park, general city residents might have a different idea and those voices ought to be heard, he said. There were differences in preferences at Monday’s meeting — adults talked about a passive park, but two boys, who described themselves as “tween-agers” because they were not yet old enough to be teenagers, said they might like a pump bike track or a skatepark on the site.