Developers for the Water’s Edge project at 683 Third Street updated the City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board’s Project Review Committee on Sept. 12, presenting a reconfigured site plan that changes a previously proposed mixed‑income southeast building to market‑rate units, shrinks that building’s footprint and shifts it north and west to provide more buffer from the Cayuga Waterfront Trail and to avoid the newly delineated floodplain.

The applicant said the change reduced the southeast building’s footprint and allowed ground‑floor units near the waterfront trail to have small outdoor amenity areas. The project team also described consolidating retail into a larger space at the northwest corner of the southwest building—replacing a prior micro‑retail approach—and expanding tenant amenity space at the corner plaza to better activate the public area along the trail.

Why it matters: changes in unit type, footprint and retail layout affect how the site interfaces with the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, floodplain constraints and future pedestrian activation. The board flagged outstanding questions that will affect the project’s phased approvals, public benefits and site design.

Key design changes presented

Program and massing: The southeast building is now shown as market‑rate units with a smaller footprint; the team said the building was shifted north and west to increase buffering from the waterfront trail and to stay outside a new floodplain boundary. The southwest building retains below‑building parking at two locations and the team said parking access will still be screened at the street edge.

Retail and amenity strategy: The applicant consolidated previously proposed micro‑retail into a single, larger retail space at the northwest corner to “activate the waterfront trail,” and expanded tenant amenity areas in the southeast and northwest corners. The team described the retail relocation as intended to improve activation of a proposed plaza.

Parking screening: The team presented preliminary ideas for parking screens and said they are studying perforated metal panels with custom imagery as an alternative to louvers. Board member Andy Roman said the change "definitely has potential" and observed the imagery could relate to the site and location; another board member noted the perforated panels were an improvement over louvers because they would break up the repetitive slotting of the building facade.

Board requests and outstanding issues

Board members asked the applicants to provide clearer before-and-after drawings, precise square footage for both buildings, the unit count and bedroom mix for the southeast building, and a parking‑count comparison to confirm no net loss of spaces. Max Pfeffer asked specifically for the number of units in the southeast building and how that compares to the prior program. Several board members asked for clearer diagrams showing access from the Cayuga Waterfront Trail to retail and how tenant amenity space will interface with the public trail.

Several members also requested options for the portion of the site not planned in the first phase (the "Norris parcel"), including potential subdivision scenarios and edge‑condition treatments between ground‑floor parking and the trail (landscaping, topography or screening). Staff asked for square footage numbers as soon as the applicants have them and reiterated the project may not exceed a 200‑unit cap in the district (as stated by staff during the meeting).

No formal vote: The committee did not take action; the presentation was an update and applicants said they will incorporate the board’s feedback and return with refined drawings at the next meeting.

Next steps: The applicant said it will prepare clearer overlay plans that show the previous proposal and the revised proposal side‑by‑side, provide building square footage, unit counts and parking totals, and refine the parking screening designs for further review. The board asked staff to look for subdivision options and to confirm any zoning implications of the program changes.