Password protect registration page?

I am creating a community site that will only be open to the 50+ people who live in our community. We’ll have a contacts list with names, phone numbers, and email addresses, but no other sensitive data. I don’t want to manually enter all 50 of the community members.

Question 1: can i simply password protect the registration page i create, then distribute the page’s password via email to community members? Once they’ve registered, my hope is then can then freely navigate around our site.

Question 2: is there a way i can have the registration page require some sort of admin approval before the user is able to navigate around the site?

And of course, if you think i’m approaching the round hole of a problem i have with square pegs of ideas, don’t hesitate to steer me in the right direction.

thanks for any suggestions,
david