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Naples lost out on a 7-acre riverfront property given as a gift by the late John Pulling a decade ago.

But the longtime benefactor’s son, John “Alec” Pulling, will meet with Collier County officials Monday to offer county government the property if it will fulfill his father’s wishes to build a marine park to make boating accessible for poorer citizens.

“The city obviously wasn’t going to do anything,” Pulling said, confirming he has set up a meeting with county officials for Monday to discuss donating the parcel. “It’s a possibility, if we could work out something.”

Pulling said he envisions boat slips and a boat launch, similar to what’s offered at Caxambas Park on Marco Island, fees that will be affordable to city and county residents who don’t have water access now due to overcrowded launches and the lack of affordable marina space.

He said fees would be like those offered at public parks, about $5 or $6, per launch.

“This has to do with boaters in the city and county who don’t have a place to launch their boats,” he said. “The ramps are packed and we’ve run out of marinas.”

Instead of the 39 slips the city of Naples had planned, Pulling believes 50 could fit.

“We have 7 acres _ are you kidding me?” he said, questioning Naples’ plans, which in pretrial depositions he had called “terrible” and a “gross misuse” of a large property he valued at $10 million.

County Manager Jim Mudd couldn’t be reached for comment about the proposal but Naples City Manager Bob Lee said he was alerted about the meeting.

“Whatever happens with this, I think the city and county would work together,” Lee said, calling his relationship with Mudd and the county good.

Pulling said he set up the meeting Friday, two days after Naples City Council members unanimously voted to accept a settlement its attorneys, Bob Pritt and Bob Menzies, recommended.

They told council that if the dispute over ownership went to trial on Sept. 10 as scheduled, chances were slim to none of the city winning. The council vote followed a six-hour arbitration session six days earlier that ended in the agreement being drawn up.

It stipulated that Naples return to the family Pulling’s gift, a 7-acre parcel on the Gordon River near the intersection of Goodlette-Frank Road and Central Avenue next to the city’s office campus on Riverside Circle.

In return, Pulling agreed to lift deed restrictions for a 10-acre property to the north that Naples purchased from Pulling’s father for $2.3 million in 1997 and intended to combine with the smaller parcel to build a marine park.

Pulling also granted Naples an easement to allow it to install utilities and build a road with bike lanes on either side as part of the Gordon River Greenway project.

Naples officials hoped to use the northern property to build a park connected to the marine park, adding walking trails, and a bridge — a crucial link in the Gordon River Greenway.

The restrictions, however, prevented the northern parcel from being used as a public park and no one in the city had noticed the restrictions for years, until Pulling’s attorney, Richard Bolf of Fort Lauderdale, pointed them out in a letter threatening a third lawsuit.

Naples officials had questioned why the elder Pullling would donate a property and restrict it to be used for a solid-waste recycling facility, a shooting range, or other municipal uses — but not a park.

The settlement becomes final 30 days after Sept. 12, but could be voided if Pulling’s second round of environmental testing determines the cost of a cleanup of oil there would exceed $200,000.

Pulling blames the city for the contamination, while Naples says it occurred before the donation.

Wednesday’s agreement settled a lawsuit Pulling filed in February that demanded return of the 10-acre property because Naples hadn’t fulfilled his father’s wishes in a decade. The agreement also made moot a second lawsuit he filed in May that accused the city of dumping on the northern property and using it for storage, a violation of deed restrictions.

Naples officials maintained it was the federal and state permitting process that caused delays that kept the city from moving forward on the project. They recently received Army Corps of Engineers approval and a state Department of Environmental Protection permit was imminent, meaning construction soon would begin.

Naples officials also had received $700,000 from county government for the marine park plan spanning both properties and were to match that amount for the planned $1.5 million marine park.

Lee said that money now could be used for the northern property and the city would work with the county to make a large marine park and public area. Barnett said the two properties would make an “awesome park.”

“If Mr. Pulling is serious about donating that property, I have a great deal for the county,” Barnett said. “We have a beautifully designed, ready-to-go, functional marine-related park plan and if the county is truly interested, we could be in business.”