Norwich ― It will be a night of transition for the City Council Tuesday, from the meeting location to the personnel and political makeup of its members.

With the elevator fixed after months out of service, Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. City Council meeting will return to Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall.

It will be Democratic Alderman Derell Wilson’s final meeting, and he will step down before it ends. He will be sworn in as the 46th District state representative Wednesday.

Wilson said he is proud of his three years on the council, his work to help pass the $385 million new school construction project and his push to ensure that some of the city’s $28 million American Rescue Plan Act grant money reached city neighborhoods. He was pleased he helped improve communications between the City Council and Board of Education.

“It’s ironic that I will be back in Council Chambers, where I started three years ago,” Wilson said. Meetings have been at Kelly Middle School since September. “It’s bittersweet to be able to finish my time on the council exactly where I started.”

After Wilson steps away, the remaining six council members will vote to accept Wilson’s resignation and to set a special meeting in late May to elect Wilson’s successor, who will serve until the 2023 fall election.

For the next five months, the politically divided council will be evenly split, with three Democrats and three Republicans. Party-line 4-3 votes have dominated recent meetings, with bitter debates over fire services and the controversial, proposed state reconstruction of Route 82, since withdrawn.

Tuesday’s meeting will begin with the continuation of a controversial plan by the Norwich Community Development Corp. to create a second business park on 384 acres of former farmland and woodlands in Occum. The City Council, acting as the zoning board, is reviewing a proposed Business Master Plan District for the property. NCDC completed the purchase of the property for $3.55 million Wednesday.

Dozens of Occum residents have spoken at the previous two public hearing sessions in opposition to the plan.

Later Tuesday, the council will vote to set a different special election for Feb. 1 on whether to keep a controversial ordinance approved by the council 4-3 on Dec 5, with the four majority Democrats in favor, that mandates the city’s paid fire department respond automatically to fires in the volunteer districts and volunteers respond to fires in the city district. The ordinance drew fierce opposition by volunteer firefighters, who petitioned for the special election.

Two new resolutions submitted by the four council Democrats on Tuesday’s agenda could raise debate. One would allocate $500,000 of the city’s remaining ARPA grant to the Southeastern Connecticut Cultural Coalition. The second item, also sponsored by the four Democrats, asks the council to adopt a cultural calendar listing dozens of dates important to various nationalities, religious faiths and people of different ethnic heritages. The school board adopted the cultural calendar in January 2021.

Republican Mayor Peter Nystrom questioned both items. He said ARPA funding proposals should start with City Manager John Salomone in a comprehensive plan, not through a single allocation. He questioned whether the city should endorse a cultural calendar that could lead to conflicts and confusion about which dates are official city holidays.

Both Nystrom and Democratic Council President Pro Tempore Joseph DeLucia said the 3-3 council split could present an opportunity for aldermen to work together, rather than a signal of political gridlock.

“We are going to have to reach across the aisle,” DeLucia said. “So, we’re going to have five months where bipartisanship has to be done if we’re going to get anything done. So maybe we have to tamp down the rhetoric and work together.”

Nystrom said cooperation will work better if council members discuss issues ahead of time, rather than presenting surprise resolutions and ordinances at agenda-setting time, as Democrats have done in recent months.

“I don’t care about control,” Nystrom said. “If we’re going to do anything, it should be what’s right for the city. I see it more of an opportunity than a hurdle.”

c.bessette@theday.com