City Sues Landowners Over Rejection of Offer : Roadways: Santa Clarita can now seize the properties through the power of eminent domain. It seeks to widen the busiest streets.

Santa Clarita has taken legal action against nine property owners who rejected the city’s offer of $342,077 to purchase about 11 acres necessary to widen some of the area’s busiest streets.

But the lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, will not delay the widening of Magic Mountain Parkway and San Fernando Road between Valencia Boulevard and Lyons Avenue, said Dick Kopecky, the city’s manager of building and engineering services.

Construction of the $24-million project is expected to begin as scheduled this summer on the Placerita Canyon bridge, Kopecky said. The suits were filed after the property owners failed to accept the city’s offer of $342,077, based on an independent appraisal, said City Atty. Carl Newton.

Now that the suits have been filed, the city will be able to obtain immediate possession of the land through its power of eminent domain. The city has deposited the $342,077 it offered in an account that property owners can draw on while trying to reach agreement.

The bulk of the land, about nine acres, is at the intersection of San Fernando Road and Magic Mountain Parkway and is owned by Newhall Land & Farming.

Marlee Lauffer, a company spokeswoman, said the firm believes that the property is worth more than the $254,460 offered by the city. But Lauffer said she is confident that the company and the city will agree on a price soon.

“This kind of legal action is a very common way to arrive at an agreeable price,” Lauffer said. “We’re very supportive of the road-widening project.”

Other property owners include Samuel Kotnik, John Boone, Victor and Virginia Williams, Dan and Miriam Tepper, Henry Arklin and Robert Chesebrough.