Summit Woods is still an expansive construction site, but the plastic plants placed on stoops and shiny sedans parked out front mean one thing: tenants are moving in.

The city issued a certificate of occupancy earlier this week for two buildings that hold 14 units. Norstar Development USA, Buffalo, plans to construct 200 units in the complex along Washington Street in the city and town of Watertown. The plans call for 27 apartment buildings, a community center and seven four-stall garages.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said she expected Norstar to continue to bring the units in the city online piecemeal throughout the winter.

"As of today, all of them are occupied," said Linda A. Charles, vice president of management for Sutton Cos. "We've had them moving in since Monday."

The Syracuse company will handle the leasing and management of Summit Woods once the buildings are fit for occupancy. The company acts in the same capacity for another Norstar-built complex along Starbuck Avenue in Watertown named Starwood.

"We expect that the next two buildings will come online towards the end of the month," she said. "We definitely have people slotted for those spots."

Among the tenants expected to occupy Summit Woods are students who will attend the Watertown City School District.

Superintendent Terry N. Fralick wrote to the City Council last month asking that sidewalks be installed along both Iroquois Avenue West and Washington Street so students can walk to school safely.

A sidewalk will be installed along Washington Street, from Summit Woods to where the existing sidewalk dead-ends, next spring. The city is soliciting grading releases from affected property owners.

Mr. Fralick said one pupil has moved into the development.

That child is being bused to Starbuck Elementary School, because she is not within a 0.75-of-a-mile radius of the school, which is deemed by the school as the acceptable walking distance for elementary-aged pupils.

The acceptable distance is 1 mile for intermediate school children and 1.5 miles for students in grades seven though 12.

Until sidewalks are installed, the district will offer bus transportation to any older students who move in, even though they will be within walking distance of the schools.

"We want to make sure these students are safe," Mr. Fralick said. "Some of the older students will probably cross Washington Street on their own and walk to school, but we will certainly offer transportation to all students until something can be done."

Mr. Fralick said he is expecting more students to move into the development within the next week.

Those students won't move in until the units are ready and a certificate of occupancy has been issued. A temporary fence has been set up, blocking residents from entering areas where construction is not complete.

"It's a really nice location for an apartment complex," Ms. Charles said. "The setting, it's beautiful. You're just not going to find that anywhere else."

A majority of the Summit Woods apartments, 64, will have three bedrooms. The rest will be one-, two- and four-bedroom units.

"There are a lot of different floor plans, so it gives people choices," Ms. Charles said.

Anyone interested in leasing an apartment at Summit Woods can call Sutton at 424-1111.