A source close to the negotiations tells Lake Lure Insider that attorneys for the Town of Lake Lure and for Second Mountain, LLC are now talking directly — and that the Brocks' side has tendered proposed terms for a revised lease, including new language addressing the police boathouse, in an effort to resolve both the pending eviction case and the boathouse lawsuit together. Neither the Town nor Second Mountain's attorney has confirmed this to us on the record as of publication.

This is a developing-story update to our August 26 report, Packed House, No Answers, and our August 25 report, Filed at 3:27 P.M. — Before the Hearing, Not After.

What we're hearing, and how confident we are in it

According to our source, the two sides' lawyers have picked up the conversation that Town Attorney Marty Benson committed to starting at Wednesday's Council meeting, when he told the crowded room he would reach out to the Brocks' attorney after the meeting ended. Our source says that contact has now happened, and that it has moved to the point where Second Mountain has put forward specific proposed terms — not just a general willingness to talk — covering both a renewed lease and a rewritten boathouse clause.

We're presenting this as a source-based report, not a confirmed fact drawn from a document. We have not seen the proposed lease language itself. We'll update this piece, or publish a follow-up, once we can confirm the specifics directly or the Town places anything about this on a public agenda.

Why a boathouse-specific fix fits what's already on the table

This isn't coming out of nowhere. At Wednesday's meeting, Commissioner Jim Proctor said publicly — in a Facebook post afterward, in his own words — that he'd told the room "if Second Mountain stops pursuing the boathouse and they adhere to their lease, that's the solution," and that Paul Brock responded, "I'm happy to let the boathouse go." We reported that exchange, and its full context, in our fuller follow-up on Wednesday's meeting: Before the Public Spoke, the Town Did. A negotiated fix that carves out or rewrites the boathouse language, specifically, rather than reworking the whole lease from scratch, would track directly with what both men said out loud in that room the day before.

It's also worth remembering, per the Town's own December 2023 meeting records, that boat dock access was part of the original winning lease proposal from Wade Oppliger, Paul and Cara Brock, and Leslie Rowland — not something added later. A revised lease that specifically re-negotiates dock and boathouse terms, rather than treating them as an all-or-nothing dealbreaker, would be consistent with how the arrangement was structured from the start.

What's still unresolved

We don't know, and are not asserting, what happens to the pending eviction case (set for a small-claims hearing September 3) or the Superior Court boathouse lawsuit if these talks produce an agreement — whether either side would move to dismiss, whether the rent figure itself is part of what's being discussed, or on what timeline. We also don't know whether the Town Council has been briefed on these terms, or would need to vote on any resulting agreement in open session — a question this outlet has been asking since before this update and continues to ask.

Sourcing Note

The claim that the two sides' attorneys are now in direct talks, and that Second Mountain has tendered specific proposed terms for a revised lease and boathouse clause, comes from a single source with knowledge of the negotiations, relayed to Lake Lure Insider's founder. We have not independently verified this against a document, email, or on-record statement from either attorney, and we are naming the source's role no more specifically than that to protect confidentiality. Commissioner Jim Proctor's Facebook post and Paul Brock's quoted response are drawn from Proctor's own public post, as reported in our August 26 coverage. The December 2023 lease proposal details are drawn from the Town's own November 29, 2023 work session minutes and December 12, 2023 meeting packet, as reported in our prior coverage.

Last updated: 2026-08-27