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A fence enclosing the 24th Street Mission BART Station plaza, shown last month, was razed by protesters Friday for a second time.

Vendors sell items outside a fence at the 24th Street Mission BART Station last month. The fence was torn down for a second time Friday.

After protesters took down the fence surrounding the BART station plaza at 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco for a second time Friday evening, officials from the transit agency signaled they may scrap the barrier altogether.

“I want to be clear that we are not contemplating putting the fencing back up again,” BART board Director Bevan Dufty told The Chronicle on Saturday, noting that the chain-link fence, intended to help curb illegal vending, had brought a new set of problems.

Crews erected it last month at the request of Supervisor Hillary Ronen, whose district includes the Mission. She and other officials hoped to discourage the resale of stolen goods, which they say has attracted crowds and sowed chaos in the area. Though the BART station was still open and accessible to riders, the plaza was supposed to remain encircled with fencing for two months.

The fencing came down just as the city officially launched its permitting system for street vendors Friday, to crack down on the resale of stolen goods in crowded public plazas such as the BART station plaza. The program attempts to curb illegal activity and unruly street conditions while not criminalizing legal vendors.

“I, too, am concerned about penalizing low-income Black and Brown people just trying to survive in the Mission,” Ronen said on Friday. “At the same time, I’m trying to balance that with the fact that the current situation in the Mission is out of control.” Ronen did not immediately respond to request for comment Saturday evening.

Community members are holding a public meeting Tuesday evening at the Unidos en Salud (United in Health) site on 24th and Capp streets to provide solutions to issues around 24th and Mission streets. Spanish and Chinese translation will be available.

In an interview Saturday evening, Dufty said this is the second time people toppled and stacked the fences at the plaza. A group called Mission DeFence Coalition claimed responsibility for a similar dismantling on Aug. 10, though crews put the fence back up the same day.

BART officials plan to meet with the supervisor this week to discuss alternatives to closing the plaza, given the controversy provoked by the fence.

Dufty said the steel barricade was taken down and stacked respectfully — “It wasn’t vandalism, it was simply taking them away,” he said. Though some graffiti appeared in the plaza after the fences came down, he said it has now been removed.

Dufty struck an optimistic tone. With the permitting system launched and the city’s Public Works department stepping in to oversee it, he said, “a new phase and effort is appropriate.”

Emma Talley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: emma.talley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EmmaT332

Emma Talley is a reporting intern for The Chronicle's metro team. She is a current undergraduate at Stanford University, where she studies communications and art, and writes for her campus newspaper. She is originally from Sacramento, California.