One man’s art is another’s junk

WASILLA — When Robin Sorensen moved to Wasilla from Anchorage in 2005, she thought she’d found her dream home in a peaceful community.

Out her living room window was a beautiful, expansive lawn next to hers on West Melanie Avenue near Lucas Road.

“It was the nicest lawn anywhere around for at least four or five blocks,” Sorensen said Thursday. “I’m originally from Dillingham, so the Valley was perfect for us.”

A year later, however, her tranquility began to dissolve when her new neighbor, Donald Isgrigg, towed in the first 25 vehicles of his 100-car collection from Anchorage and plopped them down on that lovely lawn.

“Every morning there was something new to wake up to,” Sorensen said. “I didn’t like the trend. Soon there were junk cars everywhere on his property and it was the last thing I expected to have next to me.”

Isgrigg, of 1400 W. Melanie Ave., said Thursday he’s been collecting vintage and limited-edition Jaguars and other favorites as a hobby for years and doesn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t appreciate them as much as he does.

“There’s only been one neighbor to complain, and she complains over and over and over again,” said Isgrigg, who used to have his own towing business but is currently unemployed. “I try to line them up so they look nice, but there are a lot of them. To me, they’re collector’s items, not junk.”

The city of Wasilla, however, tends to agree with Sorensen. In the past two years, the city’s code compliance officer has cited Isgrigg with land use code violations several times and his cases have ended up in Palmer District Court a handful of times.

The problem is, the city doesn’t have an ordinance prohibiting trash and junk, despite efforts by Mayor Verne Rupright and the Wasilla Planning Commission to get such an ordinance enacted by city council. This means the city can’t easily go after Isgrigg and others who might be deemed an aesthetic nuisance.

Such an ordinance narrowly failed to pass during Monday’s Wasilla City Council meeting, with council members Taffina Katkus, Steve Menard and Colleen Sullivan-Leonard voting for it and Dianne Woodruff and Leone Harris voting against it. There needed to be at least four votes in favor for it to pass, and Deputy Mayor Doug Holler was absent.

Rupright was livid.

“We have no teeth to enforce these things,” Rupright said Wednesday. “Without an ordinance the city is rendered helpless. I can stand on my deck and throw all my trash in my driveway, and six months later throw a match on it and no one could do anything about it.”

Woodruff explained Tuesday that she voted against the ordinance because she was afraid it would be used to go after the wrong people.

“I tend to be a little more concerned about individuals who may be a little more disadvantaged,” Woodruff said. “If their only recourse is to go to court, they don’t have the funds to fight it and they don’t have the money to clean it up.”

Woodruff said she’d like to see an ordinance be more complaint-driven by neighbors, rather than serve as a broad brush to go after anyone deemed a “violator.”

“I would hate for it to provide an opportunity for someone’s vendetta,” she said.

Menard disagreed.

“There have been problems with extreme hoarding going on and there’s nothing on the books that allows the city any recourse in making somebody clean up their junk,” he said. “We’re not talking about having a couple of cars in your yard.”

Menard said some Wasilla residents are afraid the city is going to become too restrictive, but he believes everyone needs to be able to live within certain boundaries.

“We’re trying to adopt a new comprehensive plan for the city which includes beautification. All that will be moot if we can’t have an ordinance with some guidelines,” Menard added.

But Isgrigg is not convinced. He said he has current titles, registration and plates for every one of his vehicles, which means they are not simply broken-down, abandoned pieces of trash.

“My collection is more like art in my mind,” Isgrigg said. “I already down-sized quite a bit because of pressure from my neighbor. At least I’m only collecting cars and not assault weapons.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.