The Jekyll Island Authority, which runs the state park off Georgia’s southeastern coast beloved by generations of Atlantans, is embroiled in a standoff with a task force it created to determine if the island will have room for future development.

Yet another lengthy and contentious battle over the island’s growth, between the authority on one side and residents and environmentalists on the other, is threatened. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution learned this week that the spat has quietly reached the state Attorney General’s office.

The dispute revolves around this: What is land? Can marshland — the soggy, but environmentally critical grassy zone between land and water — be considered land?

The stakes for the state park, which attracted 1.2 million visitors last year to the most pristine and accessible beaches in Georgia, are huge. State law restricts the amount of property Jekyll can develop to 35 percent of its land mass. A so-called 65/35 task force was charged by the authority last April with helping to determine what is land and what is marsh.

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