A petition proposing a firearms ban and limits on motorized recreation on Peavine Peak has ignited a debate among those who support the restrictions and others who fear access to a favorite spot will once again be hurt by spreading development.

The controversy highlights an issue for Reno and the West that’s growing in complexity and intensity:

How do government agencies balance the varied interests of recreational users on public lands with the varied interests of residents near public lands?

Some people, including four-wheeling enthusiast Phil Bender, are preparing to fight for what they believe is their right to enjoy public lands.

“All the recreation people have a right to use the land,” said Bender, a member of the four-wheeling group Hill’s Angels and regional director of the Nevada United Four-Wheelers Association.

“They don’t have a right to abuse the homeowners. Unfortunately, there are some ‘stupids’ out there. Those are the people who wreck it for the rest of us who like to have fun.”

A petition created by James Calkins, a lawyer and Northwest Reno resident whose property backs up to Forest Service land on the mountain was signed by 306 people. Calkins, 55, has presented his petition to the Reno City Council and Washoe County Commission in the last two weeks.

The Reno council agreed to encourage the U.S. Forest Service to address the problems created by firearm use. The county commission said it would ask the sheriff to come up with a plan to address shooting on the mountain.

As Reno grows, the present and future of the city is beginning to clash with historical uses on Peavine Peak and other public lands along the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin mountain ranges.

“All up and down the front of the (Sierra Nevada) range we’re getting concerns, but they’re not as acute as those coming from Peavine mountain,” said Larry Randall, the recreation program manager for the Carson District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

Randall said the conflict between some irate residents in new Reno suburbs and certain types of recreation in nearby Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management areas is being played out all across the growing West.

Not by coincidence, Calkins’ petition has garnered public attention, while the U.S. Forest Service has been working on a draft of a new management plan for the popular spot north of Reno.

The draft is expected to be released in late August or early September and will be available for public review and comment for 30 days after its release.

The Peavine management plan may set a precedent for how the Forest Service’s Carson district, which controls land west of U.S. 395 from Verdi to Holbrook, will deal with places near expanding urban areas in the future, he said.

The plan also would affect how city and county planners revise and design their own rules governing access to public lands from within the city and county boundaries.

Forest Service action on Peavine, though, could be years away, Randall said. The plan has to undergo public review, scrutiny by the district’s head ranger and environmental studies required by federal law before the agency can even look for money to implement any recommended changes.

Work on the plan commenced last fall, when three public meetings attended by about 300 people were held to gather public opinion, Randall said.

Two groups of Northwest Reno residents also have met to study the neighborhood’s concerns regarding the area.

Calkins went to both of those groups, a neighborhood advisory board and a focus group session that makes recommendations to city planners, to voice his concerns. Feeling the group wasn’t taking those concerns seriously enough, he came up with recommendations of his own and gathered the signatures supporting them, he said.

His plan: