This southern extension, known as Foothill-South, was intended to be the final piece in Orange County's planned 67-mile (108 km) network of public toll roads.

The proposed route was selected by a collaborative group that included the Federal Highway Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Fish & Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and Caltrans.

[10][11] The TCA Board of Directors, local elected officials who represent the areas adjacent to the toll road routes, certified the project's Environmental Impact Report in 2006.

Former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed two lawsuits in 2006, one on behalf of the Native American Heritage Commission.

A third lawsuit was filed by a coalition of several groups, including Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council.

[12] It was later revealed that the TCA funded a study in support of removing the California gnatcatcher from the federal Endangered Species list,[13] which would have made it easier to build the toll road extension.

On February 6, 2008, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-2[14] to reject the planned extension through San Onofre State Beach.

The settlement guaranteed that any roadway would avoid the Donna O'Neill Land Conservatory, the San Onofre State Beach Park, and other environmentally sensitive areas.

"[18] Rancho Mission Viejo, which has publicly condemned all the proposed alignments of the SR 241 extensions, helped to fund the construction of a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) four-lane toll-free freeway known as Los Patrones Parkway.

However, local environmental groups expressed concerns that the TCA may acquire Los Patrones Parkway in the future to extend SR 241 southward.

After facing opposition, the TCA Board of Directors voted unanimously on March 12, 2020, to support a proposal to extend the county's toll-free Los Patrones Parkway south to Avenida La Pata near the San Clemente city limit.

As of July 2024[update], both gantries and the northbound exit and southbound entrance at Portola Parkway-North use a variable pricing scheme based on the time of day for FasTrak users (it is not truly congestion priced because toll rates come from a preset schedule and are not based on actual congestion); non-FasTrak drivers must pay the maximum toll ($4.58 at Windy Ridge, $4.37 at Tomato Springs, and $3.28 at Portola Parkway-North) regardless of the day and time.

This exit list consists of the county-maintained Los Patrones Parkway that local officials do not intend to turn over to Caltrans or TCA for a possible extension of the SR 241 toll road.