04/15/09 11:37am

House designer Jack Preston Wood has apparently had second thoughts about his plan to build two 4-story townhomes where this bungalow now sits in the Freeland Historic District. The city historic commission turned down both his new-construction and demolition plans last month, and neighbors have been writing him letters and protesting every weekend since.

Freeland Historic District is a collection of 35 bungalows, marked down from the original 37, on two blocks south of White Oak Blvd. at the damp end of the Heights. There’s been no new construction in the district — which was designated just last fall — and residents have been working hard to keep it that way.

Wood tells Chronicle reporter Robin Foster that neither the Realtor nor the owner of the house told him that the house at 536 Granberry was in an historic district before he signed a contract to buy it:

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04/13/09 10:46am

The Wilshire Village Apartments at Alabama and Dunlavy have been surrounded with a chain link fence topped with barbed wire since Friday, reports a Swamplot reader. And over at the Chronicle, Nancy Sarnoff confirms that the now-vacant complex is “set to be demolished.”

Swamplot readers may especially enjoy parsing this passage:

In 2005, the owner announced plans to tear it down and possibly build an upscale tower in its place.

Matt Dilick, a commercial real estate developer who controls the partnership that owns Wilshire Village, said the demolition process will start “relatively soon.”

“The buildings are unsafe, and for numerous years prior groups have not kept the buildings maintained or the property up to city code,” he said. “The dilapidated buildings are an eyesore to the public and to the numerous homeowners and businesses in the area.”

Helpful hint: the “owner” who announced plans to tear down the complex way back in 2005 was . . . Matt Dilick.

Extra credit: Unwrap the sequence of events Sarnoff gently suggests in this passage:

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