A lawsuit filed Friday alleges the current owners of a sandy inlet at the southern end of Kiawah Island have failed to take measures to permanently protect the land.

The town of Kiawah Island, the Kiawah Island Community Association and the Kiawah Conservancy filed the breach of contract suit against KDP II, LLC, an affiliate of Kiawah Resort Associates, which owns the inlet, known as Captain Sam’s Spit.

The lawsuit states KDP agreed to “convey, deed restrict, and place conservation easements on the spit as part of a legally binding development agreement with Kiawah Island in December of 2013.”

Court documents allege the development agreement required KDP to deed part of the Spit to the Kiawah Island Community Association as community open space and to place all remaining undeveloped lands under conservation easement to be held by the Conservancy. These mandatory and unconditional obligations were required to be fulfilled prior to the expiration of the development agreement in December 2023, but were not, the suit alleges.