SHAWNEE, Okla. (KFOR) – Several families in Shawnee will be faced with tough decisions come January—up and move or potentially fall into financial ruin. The families have leased land from the Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO) around the Shawnee Twin Lakes area. They received a letter in the mail in November that said the yearly lease fees were going up by more than 500 percent. For nearly seven years, Josh Clark and his family have called a piece of property on Twin Lakes home, purchasing a house on a little more than an acre in 2018. "Whenever I was a kid, I grew up on this lake,” said Clark. “My granddad had a lake house. I always wanted to live out here." When he received the letter in the mail on November 5, he could not believe what he was reading."As soon as I got it, I opened it up, and my wife had just walked in the door,” said Clark. “I said, ‘we're moving so we can't afford it’." The yearly lease rates for the nearly 1.5 acres of land he leases from CLO had skyrocketed.He said when he moved in back in 2018, his annual rental fee for the property was $1,600 a year for a three-year period. Each time it was up for renewal he expected a small increase, but the lease rates in January 2025 jumped from $2,700 to $18,000. That amount would be on top of his mortgage. UPS to permanently lay off more than 300 Oklahoma City workers amid facility “modernizing” "I could be financially ruined, either incurring too much debt or unable to take on that debt and be stuck with the mortgage and eventually bankruptcy," said Clark. He said six families living along the lake were given the opportunity to purchase their land in 2022 at the appraised value or continue to lease. In 2022, the appraisal was roughly $115,000."Incurring that, it's just not feasible," said Clark. The appraisal in 2025 would be more than $150,000. Clark decided to keep leasing the property and he has felt the astronomical rate increase was retaliation. He said the numbers don’t add up. "They're trying to force our hand out of it rather than holding on to the precedents of slight increases," said Clark. CLO told News 4 the price increase will kick in January 1. They said they have offered the families involved an opportunity to pay the costs in monthly payments at $1,500 a month. The office also said they have a board meeting December 4 where they will “request to keep the rates the same for the next year” so families can make decisions on what they would want to do next.The five commissioners on the board that will decide on the rate hike are Governor Kevin Stitt, Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, State Superintendent Ryan Walters, State Auditor Cindy Byrd, and Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur. The board meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the Governor's large conference room at the Capitol.