Leonard Penner standing on the lot of a proposed apartment in Landmark

The Rural Municipality of Tache will vote on a controversial new apartment complex for Landmark Tuesday night.

The complex itself is not the controversy. The controversy is where it is slated to be built - right across from the Feed Mill in town.

Leonard and Hettie Penner used to own the lot the 12-unit complex is to be built on. Hettie says it's a simple safety issue.

"The driveway for this apartment is straight across from the feed mill driveway. All the semi and grain trucks go on the shoulder to make the turn to go into the feed mill. There's no room for both the feed mill traffic and the apartment. This is a 12-unit apartment with kids and everything, and there's no room for the kids to walk to get to school. There's no safe access for the kids to get to school. They're going to get hurt."

Penner says even if the RM was to build a sidewalk for the children, every spring that sidewalk could be underwater due to annual flooding, making it even more dangerous with kids walking on the road.

Her and her husband circulated a petition, gathering 126 signatures from area residents. They also got letters of opposition from Maple Leaf Agri-Farms and support from the Landmark Chamber of Commerce. Despite that, Penner says the Council is bent on ramming this through and cites the selfish outlook of a number of councillors, along with Mayor Bill Danylchuk.

"I can only guess - and this is only my guess, but Tache wants to build a new $3.5 million new municipal office. Mayor Danylchuk is retiring and I think he wants the power and the glory of getting that through, no matter who's dead body lays in the way."

Penner clearly states she is not opposed to the apartment complex itself, she is simply opposed to the location of it. If it were built in another part of the community, she says she'd likely be supportive of it.

The RM Council is set to meet at 7 pm Tuesday night to vote on the complex. Penner says she will not be in attendance because it is obvious to her there is nothing anyone can do.

"They had an open meeting December 15th and have already decided to vote it in. They're even going to over-rule on the variance. They're not listening to anybody. All these signatures, the Chamber of Commerce opposition and everything. They're not even listening, they're dictating."

Penner also accuses Danylchuk of helping to swindle her and her husband out of the lot for the apartment complex by altering the zoning for it from residential to commercial without even informing her. She was told by the Council that the re-zoning was printed in the local paper and that is all that is required by law.

Landmark Councillor Robert Koop says they are not comfortable with commenting on the issue at this time.  Koop says they held a public hearing in December and usually, once the hearing is complete, they reserve talking publicly about an issue until a decision is finalized.

Koop says he will be willing to comment on the issue later in the week.