Am not sure if this is appropriate and a good reason to have an Attorney BUT I always understood that if the public used a piece of private property and it was not closed at least one day a year it became a public access and the public had the rights to pass through it forever? You know that in NYC a lot of business's actually close a side walk one day a year to protect it against being made public property..Would like an attorney to see if this has any meaning in this case???