The Bureau of Reclamation recently approved a lease agreement that will allow the city of Durango to manage recreation at Lake Nighthorse.

The city approved the 25-year lease in January and the bureau signed it on Friday.

However several legal steps and some construction work remains before the lake can open; there is no timeline for opening the lake.

The next big step is the annexation of the property into the city, so the city can provide law enforcement, said Cathy Metz, director of Parks and Recreation.

The process generally takes about three months, said Justyn Liff, spokeswoman for the bureau.

“Hopefully we can keep on moving forward,” she said.

A planning-and-development memorandum of understanding between the city and the bureau must be signed and necessary infrastructure, including a dock, must be built before the lake can open.

The bureau must finish a cultural resource management plan for the lake, and the city is working out details of how recreation will be managed.

“We’re just having continued conversations with all the interested parties,” Metz said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com