North County Transit District has abandoned its original plan to build a safety fence along the railroad tracks on the Del Mar bluff, a proposal the wealthy coastal community fought for years, saying it would ruin ocean views, lower property values and restrict beach access. NCTD filed a request Friday with the federal Surface Transportation Board asking it to dismiss a petition the transit agency originally filed in 2020. The petition asked the board to give the district the sole authority to proceed with the fencing and with the ongoing bluff stabilization projects without being subject to state or local regulations. The transit agency also has settled a lawsuit filed by the California Coastal Commission that said the fence project would disrupt pedestrian access to the beach and that it needed a full environmental analysis, which the district did not complete, and a coastal development permit from the commission. “The settlement agreement … paves the way to work together going forward without the specter of an unsightly 4-foot or 6-foot chain link or hog-wire fencing stretching from north to south along the fragile Del Mar bluff,” Del Mar Councilmember Terry Gaasterland said Monday. The bluff stabilization project “has already had serious and nearly irreversible impacts with beach coves lost behind seawalls and concrete, and with grading on the face of the bluff,” Gaasterland said. While the settlement filed Sept. 19 in San Diego Superior Court does not include the safety fence, it does allow a bluff-top pedestrian trail with a fence made of 3-foot-tall wooden pylons and steel cables, “or another similarly low-profile design.” The trail is required by the Coastal Commission as environmental mitigation for the bluff stabilization work. “The use of wooden pylons and low-profile designs would ensure that the fencing would not adversely impact visual resources,” the settlement states. The proposed north-south trail would be built east of the rail track on the top of the bluff between Seagrove Park and Fourth Street, the settlement states. “I look forward to seeing the designs for the access structures and working together to make sure they work well for everyone, while preserving this natural coastal bluff for future generations to enjoy,” Gaasterland said. NCTD owns the railroad tracks from Oceanside to the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. The railway is used by Amtrak passenger trains, NCTD’s Coaster commuter trains and BNSF Freight trains. Transit officials did not respond to an email request for comments Monday. In the past they have said the fence is essential and long overdue to prevent people from trespassing on the tracks and being killed by the trains. Train traffic has increased significantly on the route since the initiation of Coaster commuter service in the 1990s. As many as 50 trains travel the segment daily, and the regular runs are expected to increase over the next few decades. The railroad is part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, corridor. It is San Diego’s only rail connection to Los Angeles and the rest of the United States. Del Mar was one of three areas, along with Oceanside and Encinitas, recommended for additional fencing because of frequent trespassing, according to a study of the 60-mile segment of the San Diego County coastal rail corridor released by NCTD in October 2020. There was little resistance to the project in Oceanside and Encinitas, where the tracks are a few blocks east of the coastline. Del Mar’s coastal bluffs erode at the average rate of six inches a year, steadily increasing the threat to the seaside tracks. This year the San Diego Association of Governments, which plans and oversees the railroad construction work, began its fifth phase of bluff stabilization projects in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, planning is underway for a controversial SANDAG proposal to reroute about 1.6 miles of track off the bluff into a tunnel beneath Del Mar at a cost of more than $4 billion, with construction to be completed by 2035.