The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is ending a standoff with the Wollaston Yacht Club by renewing the organization’s permit at its existing $5,000-a-year level as long as the club agrees to start making payments to reduce its six years of unpaid back rent.

The club stopped paying rent in 2006, and over time ran up a tab of $32,000. The club’s failure to pay its rent was highlighted in a January investigative report by CommonWealth, which revealed that rent from some of the state’s leases is going uncollected, expiration dates on others are being ignored, and leases are being renewed in perpetuity at astonishingly low rents. DCR Commissioner Ed Lambert has called in State Auditor Suzanne Bump to investigate the state’s management of its properties.

During his negotiations with the Wollaston Yacht Club, Lambert has threatened to evict the club if it didn’t pay up. Wollaston’s commodore, Mark Butkevich, has countered that the club couldn’t afford the $5,000 fee. “It would bankrupt us,” he said. Butkevich could not be reached for comment.

But a letter sent to Butkevich last week by DCR general counsel Douglas Rice indicates the two parties are nearing an agreement. DCR agreed to keep the rent payment unchanged and Wollaston agreed to pay it, along with another payment of $500 within 30 days of the current permit being executed.

The letter does not specify when the Wollaston Yacht Club would make subsequent payments and how much those payments will be. DCR officials say they want to clear up the permit issue quickly so the club can retain its members and make additional payments on the back rent owed.

Rice warned in his letter that additional payments must keep coming until the entire $32,000 is paid. “Failure to make payments towards your outstanding balance will result in revocation of your permit,” he wrote.