The Zoning Board of Appeals last week approved plans by Wallpaper City on Poplar Street to add two floors with a total of eight apartments.

Wallpaper City owner Russell Flynn's proposal calls for six one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units. The units on the top floor will each have their own private roof decks. Wallpaper City will stay in its current location.

The proposal includes no off-street parking spaces for residents. Flynn's architect on the project said Roslindale Square is "fairly commuter friendly," with a commuter-rail station, "lots of bus stops" and a Hubway station.

City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Roslindale, Mattapan, Hyde Park) and Michelle Wu, Annissa Essaibi-George and Michael Flaherty approved the proposal, as did the mayor's office, Roslindale Village Main Street and WalkUp Roslindale.

This will be the second single-story building in the square to have residential floors added in recent years - landlord Vinny Marino added two floors of apartments to the Washington Street building where Tony's Market and Redd's in Rozzie used to be. The square has several buildings that had upper floors lopped off as the square settled into senescence before its current revival started in the early 1990s.

The Zoning Board of Appeals last week approved a proposal by City Realty to replace the unoccupied house at 9 Mansfield St. in Allston with a five-unit apartment building with six parking spaces in the rear.

The board needed to approve variances because the proposed building would be denser and taller than allowed under the zoning for the lot, which also does not allow multi-family housing.

Tony D'Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association, which supported the proposal, said the street already has several buildings used for apartments and condos.

The proposed building's closeness to the sidewalk was, briefly, a sticking point for some board members. Board member Mark Ehrlich said the proposal "sticks out like a tooth." But City Realty attorney Jeff Drago said that's because other buildings on the street have their parking in front, while the proposed City Realty building would have its parking in the preferred location, in the rear.

D'Isidoro said his members particularly appreciated the building's design, which he said would fit in well with the existing buildings on the street.

The MBTA is reporting delays on the Blue Line due to, once again, signal problems at Orient Heights.

The Coast Guard is urging mariners piloting ships into Boston Harbor to be extra careful this morning due to a barge that may have sunk somewhere near two of the main approaches into the port:

The Port of Boston remains open; however, mariners are advised to use extreme caution when transiting the area. The Coast Guard recommends no vessels transit the North or South Boston Main Channels until further notice.

The Coast Guard says the barge broke free Sunday morning:

The captain of tug boat Big Jake notified the Coast Guard at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sunday that two of five barges they were towing had broken free and were adrift.

Crew members from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton and Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo responded to the scene along with the tug boats Smith Predator, Justice, and Kendall J. Hebert.

While Big Jake was being escorted to Hull two more barges broke free bringing the total number of adrift barges to four.

The three tug boats each located a barge and brought them to safe havens.

The fourth barge, which was carrying construction equipment, capsized and possibly sank two miles southeast of Nahant.

The Coast Guard adds State and Boston Police harbor crews are expected to go to the area this morning and use sonar in an attempt to locate the barge.