Snowzilla takes Anchorage Alaska Again

by jessica.lam | December 24, 2008 at 01:40 pm

802 views | 33 Recommendations | 11 comments

What is white, cold and 25 feet tall with carrot nose?

Well, it's a snowman of massive proportions sitting on Billy Powers front lawn in Anchorage, Alaska. This monumental creation started appearing 3 years ago.

For the last three years, Snowzilla _ to the delight of some and the chagrin of others _ has been a very large feature in Powers' yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

'Have you seen him?' Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. 'He's handsome.'

Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children _ he is the father of seven _ collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

So does Billy have the right to create a giant snowman or does the neighbourhood have the right to a safe street, not clogged with traffic?

Well the question of rights might be put on the table and www.snowzilla.org is trying to raise funds in preparation of a lawsuit. Paypal anyone?

Check out the interview with Billy Powers here.

I can't help but like any project involving a snowman of that magnitude.

I think that Snowzilla is great, every neighborhood should have one. Some people are such Grinches!

We are going to try for a mini-Snowzilla tonight! Lots of snow in Vancouver and a park nearby for us to play in.

Maybe Billy should have invited them to help build the snowman - haha.

Time to dig out those xcountry skis. I love how people did that the first day after the heavy snowfall.

Not all his neighbors are with him on this.

Seems his yard is an ecletic collection of artifacts, to put it kindly, or a yard full of unsightly, smelly junk, to put it bluntly.

But complaints trickled in from neighbors who didn't appreciate the increased traffic and noise at all hours.

Several weeks ago, city code enforcers -- acting when this year's giant snowman was half-complete -- declared Snowzilla a nuisance and a safety hazard. They banned homeowner Billy Powers from building an "extraordinarily large snowman." The city posted its stop-work order at the base of the snowman and on Powers' front door.

Stung by criticism of its decision to outlaw Snowzilla, the city went on the offensive against Powers on Tuesday afternoon in a press release.

A city spokeswoman said Powers has violated city land-use codes for 13 years and ignored city efforts to "accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood."

When asked Tuesday morning about his other disputes with the city -- involving the old cars, tires and other junk he stores in his front yard -- Powers abruptly ended the interview and went inside his house.

"We've already had enough bah humbug," he said.

According to officials, the city has a lien against his property for $118,000, the amount of money Powers owes in a court judgement for ignoring repeated orders to clean up the yard.

Did the bad blood over the property dispute influence the city's decision to kill Snowzilla?

"It was certainly in the back of our mind but I think we would have done the same thing if it had been a different place," said Richard Fern, a city code enforcement officer.

Got a little white stuff envy going on down here in Texas.

I would think that if the city of Anchorage is concerned about the safety and nuiance value of Snowzilla, they could offer a park or parking lot that could handle the traffic flow, where the mysterious Snowzilla could live in Peace and good will. A barrier fence could keep onlookers at a distance and out of harms way. Surely there is some sort of compromise out there.

As you can see from this 2006 picture, SZ was much slimmer. I think the battles with the city have resulted in late night binge eating. Is bariatric surgery an option?

N0 has contributed a photo to this story.