The 23-acre property purchased by the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation district in 2015 now has an official name: Sakai Park.

The Bainbridge park board voted last week to approve the new name. Officials had considered calling the parcel “Central Park,” in reference to its mid-island location, but worried that the name evoked images of New York’s Central Park, which is a “very manicured park, with nothing left natural at all,” said Bainbridge Park Commissioner Lee Cross.

The board instead decided to honor the parcel’s history, she said, and the Sakai family who had owned it.

“We wanted to remember their contribution and the fact that they had owned all this land, not only where the park is, but also where the high school is located and where the district’s administrative buildings are located — that’s the Sakai family’s house, actually,” Cross explained.

In December, the board will discuss next steps and the development of the park’s concept plan. In the meantime, they have put out a request for qualifications to find a landscape architect to manage the process.