SAN MARCOS -- The city and North County Transit District are blaming each other for the sorry condition of landscaping along the city's section of a regional bike trail.

San Marcos City Councilman Hal Martin said Wednesday that he doesn't care who is responsible for the dead and dying plants and trees along the city's portion of the 22-mile Inland Rail Trail.

He just wants the problem fixed.

"This is pretty stupid," Martin said. "Somebody go out and water them in the middle of the night if you have to. Don't let them die."

Part of a larger network of bike paths, the Rail Trail follows the Sprinter light-rail line from Oceanside to Escondido. The transit district landscaped the entire trail after the Sprinter line was finished early last year.

Martin said Wednesday that city officials knew some of the landscaping along a black fence that blocks public access to the tracks had been dying because broken sprinkler heads kept the plants from getting water.

San Marcos could not take any action, City spokeswoman Jenny Peterson said, because the transit district controlled the right-of-way in which the landscaping was planted.

"It'd be like somebody saying, 'Oh, that lawn needs to be mowed. Why don't you mow it?' " Peterson said. "Some might argue that, 'Well, it might not be a good idea for you to go in and mow private property.'

"That's a very boiled-down version of it, but I think it helps explain (the situation.)"

However, transit district spokesman Tom Kelleher said the entire bike trail was outside the fence, and therefore the right-of-way, to keep residents away from the Sprinter rail.

Anything outside the fence, including landscaping, is the city's responsibility, Kelleher said. He said that is spelled out in agreements that his agency, San Marcos and Escondido signed last year.

"Once the Sprinter was completed and the construction was done, the Rail Trails were turned over to the respective cities," he said. "So Escondido is responsible for maintaining the Rail Trail in their city. And the city of San Marcos is responsible for operating and maintaining it in the city of San Marcos."

Peterson said the city and the transit district recently approved a maintenance agreement that requires San Marcos to take care of the landscaping -- after the transit agency replaces all the dead and dying plants and trees.

"My understanding is that (the transit district) is doing that now and then we'll assume responsibility for the maintenance of that right after that," she said.

Kelleher said he was aware a new agreement had been approved, but that he was not familiar with the details and didn't have access to the document Wednesday afternoon.

Martin said he blames the transit district for the situation but believes the city should not have not let a legal technicality keep it from intervening.

"To have one-third of the plants dying because you can't agree on who's responsible for this, that's ridiculous," he said. "And it's going to take a couple of years to get them back to where they're doing good and look nice again."

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654.

CORRECTION: Info attributed to wrong city official

A story in Thursday's edition about dying landscaping along the San Marcos section of the Inland Rail Trail attributed a comment about broken sprinkler heads to the wrong city official. Councilman Hal Martin said the sprinklers led to the problem.

We apologize.