Siano infill project wins approval despite neighbor's objection, Tapestry Charter expands school

But the losing neighbor isn't done yet.

Matthew and Christopher Siano's HES Properties plans to construct a three-story building with nine apartments and a single ground-floor commercial space on a vacant lot at 386 Grant.

The 10,800-square-foot building will include five one-bedroom and one-bathroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments with two bathrooms. One of the apartments, located behind the commercial space on the ground floor, will be handicapped-accessible.

However, the $2.4 million project – which complies with the Green Code – includes just six parking spaces in back of the 0.14-acre site, underneath the upper floors.

"If we could have gotten more, we absolutely would have," said architect John Wingfelder. "It was just a balance of priorities."

Syed Ali, one of the owners of the adjacent house at 386 Grant St., claimed that Christopher Siano violated easement laws by ripping up half of a shared concrete driveway and parking pad between the properties that had been there for 50 years.

The Planning Board approved the project, but Ali said they will consider a lawsuit.

Tapestry Charter

Tapestry Charter School has enhanced its college-prep offerings over the last three years, adding 10 new advanced-placement and dual-enrollment college courses to its curriculum offerings.

Now it wants to add the classroom space to do them right.

The K-12 charter school is seeking to construct a single-story addition to one of its school buildings at 65 Great Arrow Ave., giving it another 7,628 square feet of space on the west side of the facility between Delaware and Elmwood avenues, behind a Praxair building.

The L-shaped addition would be erected just southeast of where a previously approved future track and soccer field is now under construction, with a concrete patio and canopy in between.

Designed by Studio T3 Engineering, with construction over six months by RP Oak Hill Building Co., the $1.2 million expansion on the 7.6-acre site will include five classrooms and a lobby link to the existing building, according to a letter to the city Planning Board from Tapestry Executive Director Eric Klapper.

Founded in 2001, Tapestry serves about 1,100 students overall, and has graduated over 900 students since its high school began a decade ago.