As the clean-up begins following this year's Burning Man Festival, a looming question remains. Will it return to the Black Rock Desert?

Organizers hope so, but it hinges on whether they can store displays and vehicles on 200-acres they own. A staging area that's drawn complaints from area residents.

It's just off a small gravel road, 20 miles north of Gerlach, they call it "The Burning Man Work Ranch." When volunteers clean-up the Black Rock Desert, it's where they bring some of the displays and "art cars" used during the festival.

The problem is that the "Work Ranch" is in violation of county codes. It all has to do with the storage of supplies. "Some of it is out in the open and our work with them is trying to get as much material as we can into containers, where possible," says county Planning Manager, Bob Webb.

Another issue is volunteers living on the property. "People living on the parcel without main residential units being there with water hookups, sewer, those sorts of things," says Webb.

At one point, this wasn't a conflict. The planning commission approved special-use permits for the staging area. But last May, the county board revoked the permits after five people complained that the ranch would be a magnet for trash.

Neighbors aren't necessarily against the staging area they just want the area fenced in and trees planted around it to block what they call eyesores. Burning Man organizers say they are willing to comply with the requests and they'll present their plans to the county in two weeks, in hopes of reaching a compromise.

If that compromise falls through, "Burning Man" would have to move somewhere else. "The impact to Washoe County would be in the millions, Reno in particular, and the impact to this town (Gerlach) would be tragic," says Burning Man Director, Larry Harvey. 

Festival organizers say they would continue to push forward with a lawsuit against the county commission for revoking the permits. But say if a deal can be reached soon, they'll drop the suit. "We don't want to go forward with that. We're looking for every available option to compromise the issue," says Harvey. 

County officials say they want the same thing, and hope to end the political firestorm before the end of October and keep the fire burning in the Black Rock Desert.