Backfence.com, which operates four “hyperlocal” web sites in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., says it is just days away from launching a similiar site in Palo Alto. The Internet company had previously said it was launching here in May. But President and CEO Susan DeFife and Executive VP Mark Potts said in a statement posted last night: “We have undertaken a major redesign of our user interface and product functionality in preparation for our launch, and you can see the early results of that in the Backfence communities in Washington, D.C. We’ve hired some of our key team members in the Bay Area, and we’re now gathering content for our opening, which we anticipate being just a few days away.” They’ve hired former Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor as one of their writers. The site will combine news, items posted by readers, event listings, classifed and display ads and photo galleries by readers.