A road under construction in south county is to be a free road, not a toll road, under a lawsuit settlement between the Orange County Board of Supervisors and San Clemente.

San Clemente’s City Council approved the Los Patrones Parkway settlement on Dec. 5, and the Board of Supervisors followed suit on Dec. 12, City Attorney Scott Smith announced at a council meeting Dec. 19.

The agreement settles a complaint the city filed in July over agreements the county had with Caltrans and the Transportation Corridor Agency.

The Rancho Mission Viejo community is constructing Los Patrones as a county road along an alignment originally designed as an extension of the 241 Toll Road from Oso Parkway to the I-5 south of San Clemente.

County Counsel Leon Page said it never was the county’s intention to authorize a toll road for that route; the county’s agreement was to allow construction of an Oso Parkway bridge over what will become the 241 Toll Road’s transition onto Los Patrones Parkway. The city felt the agreements could be authorizations for a toll road extension, Page said.

“We said no, it was never our intention,” he said. “I never felt we were giving anything up, because it never was our intention to do what San Clemente was concerned about.”

The city, under the settlement, agrees not to sue to try to block construction of the Oso bridge, Page said.

In 2008, the Coastal Commission rejected the toll road route from Oso south to San Onofre, and a year ago the TCA abandoned the route as a way to end a legal battle waged by environmental groups.

The TCA continues to explore alternative routes to I-5 for the 241. Opposition has surfaced in communities located along all four potential routes that have been identified.

Residents complain a toll road would disrupt communities never designed to accommodate the road and would violate open space set aside as community greenbelts and habitats. The toll road agency is exploring road options as part of a study to relieve I-5 traffic.

In July, San Clemente and a homeowner association filed a lawsuit challenging the TCA over the way it established a no-build zone south of San Clemente in the settlement of environmental groups’ lawsuits, with no public input or environmental review process. The lawsuit also named the county, objecting to cooperative agreements that could have converted Los Patrones into a toll road. The announced settlement only involves the county portion.