Though Orange County’s toll road agency announced in March an agreement with other transportation agencies to drop planning for an extension of the 241 Toll Road through San Clemente, city leaders continue to seek a court ruling to settle the toll road’s future.
This month, as a response, the Transportation Corridor Agencies’ Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency board approved spending another $600,000 to defend itself in the three-year-old lawsuit.
The TCA has reached an agreement with the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans to stop studying options for extending the 241 and leave its end point at Oso Parkway in Mission Viejo, instead supporting the extension of Los Patrones Parkway to Avenida La Pata south of the Prima Deshecha Landfill to help handle south county traffic needs.
San Clemente officials argue the TCA should codify the agreement, either by supporting a state bill that would do so or by signing an agreement with the city.
“They kept talking about just walking away from the lawsuit and leaving a San Clemente freeway as an open question,” City Attorney Scott Smith said. “That’s just not good enough.”
In April, the TCA’s Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency – which oversees the 241 – offered San Clemente a deal to mutually waive all fees and costs involved with the case and end the lawsuit, TCA spokeswoman Lori Olin said in an e-mail. “This would have put the past in the rear-view mirror and protected the limited financial resources of all parties, including taxpayers of the state of California and the city of San Clemente.”
But San Clemente and the homeowner’s association that joined it in the lawsuit refused, arguing that agreeing to the TCA’s deal would leave open the possibility of having the 241 cut through the city some day.
The TCA is opposing a bill proposed by Sen. Pat Bates that would change the definition of the 241 Toll Road in the state’s highway code to have the road end at Oso Parkway instead of reflecting a possible future extension to the 5 Freeway south of San Clemente. If they won’t support that bill, why should San Clemente trust they really have abandoned the option, Smith said.
TCA officials say Bates’ bill would weaken the agency’s ability to react to future conditions. The bill is stalled in the state Assembly because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Just to say let’s walk away and fight some other time, that’s not an acceptable outcome,” Smith said. A court ruling would settle the future of the 241 once and for all, he said.
Olin said the TCA has spent “a substantial amount” to fight the case, including the $600,000 recently approved by the board.
San Clemente has paid about $100,000 in legal expenses, Smith said. His firm is handling the case on a contingency basis, meaning it would recover the remainder of its legal fees only if it wins and gets the court to order the TCA and other defendants to pay for attorney’s fees, he said.
Beyond the lawsuit, San Clemente has additionally spent more than $1.3 million fighting the TCA, including having the city contract with its own traffic consultants and legislative strategists, according to the city’s February report on its legal services budget.
Officials at the city and the TCA both said they expect the lawsuit to continue into 2021.
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July 25, 2020 at 04:10AM
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San Clemente maintains court challenge to 241 extension idea - OCRegister
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