An ongoing brouhaha in Sausalito over how people can access Golden Gate National Recreation has been settled: a private road can’t be used to get to open space.

For years, hikers have been using Wolfback Ridge Road to access the trails. But all along, residents — whose homes sit high above the city — have maintained their road is not a public thoroughfare, but rather private.

The head of the Wolfback Ridge homeowners association said residents are concerned about safety, saying the narrow road puts hikers at risk.

“There is no parking as well, but it’s really a safety issue,” Vipul Patel said.

After a recent dustup and lengthy discussions on social media, the city of Sausalito reviewed the issue and weighed in.

“It is a private road,” said Lilly Whalen, Sausalito’s assistant city manager.

The status of Wolfback Ridge Road as private was confirmed by a state court ruling in 1970, Glass v. Gulf Oil, city officials said.

“Although the road is within Sausalito City limits, it is private and restricted to use by neighborhood residents and their guests,” read a city press release.

Some of the confusion stems back to inaccurate information in a county of Marin mapping database that led Sausalito city staffers to erroneously refer to Wolfback Ridge Road as public in 2015. That misinformation was corrected in the database, and the county assessor’s records were updated to reflect the road as a private right‐of‐way easement. But before the corrections, word on the internet spread about using Wolfback Ridge Road as a way to get to the trails.

The city is now urging hikers to use the nearby Morning Sun Trail adjacent to the Spencer Avenue parking area, or the Rodeo Avenue Trail at the Rodeo Avenue exit from southbound Highway 101 to use trails.

Corte Madera resident Matt Mihaly has used Wolfback Ridge Road to access the trails multiple times, parking on the street before walking the trails. But earlier this month someone put a hard-to-remove sticker on his vehicle warning him not to park on the road.

He will abide by the decision, he said.

“The city of Sausalito says that road is now private and I have no more reason to doubt them than I did when they told me the opposite a couple years ago,” he said via email. “I gather that of the various maps that might indicate zoning status, some reflected it as private and some didn’t. Mistakes happen. Good enough for me. I wish the residents of Wolfback Ridge the best, though I don’t think stickering people’s cars leads to much other than escalation.”