South Carolina Court Declines to Revisit Case Over Plan to Build Homes on Sand Spit

South Carolina’s highest court said Wednesday that it won’t revisit a dispute between developers and environmentalists over a plan to build homes on a sand spit south of Charleston.

The state Supreme Court is standing by a June decision to overturn permits developers had sought to build a 2,380-foot (725-meter) seawall between Captain Sam’s Spit and Kiawah Island.

Kiawah Development Partners, which plans to build 50 homes on the sand spit, has said the wall would protect against erosion from the bordering Kiawah River and allow the construction of a road to the proposed houses.

The court sided with environmentalists challenging the project who argued that the wall would have devastated the ecologically sensitive area.

Captain Sam’s Spit is just one of three remaining undeveloped beachfronts in South Carolina readily available to the general public, the justices noted.