OCEANSIDE -- The chain-link fence is coming down, a black vinyl fence is going up, but the uproar isn't going away.

It started several months ago, when the North County Transit District installed the chain-link fence near the Sprinter tracks along a stretch of Oceanside Boulevard, just east of Interstate 5. The fence runs along the south side of the busy thoroughfare, from Commerce to Crouch streets.

Residents and business owners raised a stink, calling the fence an eyesore and begging officials for a better-looking alternative.

"Is this really the gateway you want people to see who will be frequenting El Corazon, the business parks, our neighborhoods and a large section of the city that happens to be east of I-5?" activist Nadine Scott wrote in a June 28 e-mail addressed to Mayor Jim Wood and Oceanside City Council members.

In response to the complaints, interim City Manager Peter Weiss asked the North County Transit District to remove the chain-link fence and replace it with the black vinyl one at a cost of $60,000, Councilman Jack Feller said Friday.

The expense is set to be approved by the council at its July 18 meeting, Weiss said.

"There's something like $1 million in our Gateway Beautification fund, so taking a little bit of money to put that black vinyl fence up as opposed to the chain-link isn't a big deal," Feller said.

Residents and merchants say the black fence is a good temporary fix, but that what they really want is wrought-iron.

The transit district, which put up the fence to meet California Public Utilities Commission requirements to keep people from crossing the tracks, says it would have been happy to install wrought-iron if the city had agreed to pay for it.

Transit district spokesman Tom Kelleher said all cities along the Sprinter corridor, which stretches from Oceanside to Escondido, were given the option three years ago to upgrade to wrought-iron fencing and that only the city of San Marcos took advantage of the opportunity.

Weiss said that city staff will present a cost estimate to the council at the July 18 meeting for upgrading to a wrought-iron fence.

Councilman Jerry Kern said the black vinyl fencing should have been put in by the transit district to begin with but that there was a breakdown in communication.

"I'm not real thrilled about spending $60,000 for fencing that (the transit district) was going to put up anyway," Kern said. "I'm not going to go over that amount and I don't think we gain anything by having wrought-iron."

Kern said the black vinyl will disappear with the right landscaping.

"In 10 years, you probably won't know the difference between black vinyl and galvanized," he said.

Chuck Lowery, who owns Pacific Bakery off Oceanside Boulevard, about a mile east of the Center City Golf Course, said that while he understands the idea of not letting people run across the tracks, he would like to see a "thoughtful" plan for the area: One that involves planning for a sidewalk and landscaping, as well as an attractive fence.

Contact Marga Kellogg at 760-901-4067 or mkellogg@nctimes.com