The Reno City Council unanimously backed a long-term plan Tuesday to balance recreational use and homeowner interests on Peavine Peak as momentum builds to close the 7th Street Pits to motorcycling.

City and U.S. Forest Service officials also discussed the possibility of setting aside more of the mostly privately owned south flank of Reno’s backyard mountain for public ownership to protect it from development.

“I think they’ve come up with a very good compromise for everyone,” Councilman Dave Aiazzi said of the Peavine Mountain Roads and Recreation Strategy, which was jointly prepared by the Forest Service and planners for Reno and Washoe County.

The document, expected to be finalized by the Forest Service later this week, aims to protect both the interests of those who play on Peavine’s chocolate-colored slopes and those living in homes steadily creeping up the mountain’s flanks. It addresses issues ranging from littering and recreational shooting to preserving public access through a dozen different portals ringing the mountain.

One action under consideration by the Forest Service is closure of the 7th Street Pits, a popular motorcycling area that has been generating an increasing number of noise and dust complaints from nearby homeowners.

Problems associated with the 7th Street Pits, which is partly owned by the Forest Service and private developers, are only expected to get worse as the area is developed. Council members agreed closure of the old gravel pit now used to jump dirt bikes is probably a desirable step.

But Aiazzi warned that before the pits are closed to motorcyclists, officials had better identify another place where they can go. Otherwise, Aiazzi said, dirt bikers now riding there will simply go elsewhere on Peavine, damaging the mountainside.

“If we don’t provide someplace else first, you’re going to have a lot of trouble,” Aiazzi said.

Gary Schiff, chief ranger for the Forest Service’s Carson Ranger District, suggested the situation at the pits should be addressed before encroaching development worsens the problem. The portion of the pits now in private hands could be developed as soon as a couple of years from now, Schiff said.

“I don’t know how long you want to put off dealing with this,” Schiff said.

No one spoke in opposition to the concept of closing the pits to motorcycles. Reno lawyer Mark Beguelin, an off-highway vehicle enthusiast, presented the council with a petition signed by more than 500 dirt-bikers, four-wheelers and others in support of the Peavine plan. Beguelin said the group supports the concept of closing the pits so long as the far more important issue of preserving access to Peavine by off-highway vehicles remains a priority.

Officials also discussed ways to put more of Peavine’s southern slopes in public ownership. Options include applying for land acquisition through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, which allows for the purchase of sensitive land with money raised from the sale of public property in Las Vegas Valley.

Another possibility is preserving south Peavine through a northern Nevada version of the public lands act or through a land exchange, said Arlo Stockham, advance planning manager for Reno.