HANCOCK — Hancock officials recapped their accomplishments over the past year and unveiled future plans during a joint meeting Monday night.

Hancock’s City Council, Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority met at the Wiitanen Room of the HoCo Arena.

One priority is filling vacant city-owned properties, including the three former Finlandia University buildings the city purchased last year.

An event for developers had good turnout, City Manager Mary Babcock said. OHM also prepared a feasibility study for the buildings through a grant received by the city.

A request for qualifications was put out for developers interested in the three Finlandia buildings and the former Risto’s Hardware building on Quincy Street. None had responded by last week’s deadline, Babcock said.

“Our next step right now is we’re trying to get them cleaned out before winter,” she said. “From there, we’re really going to have to work at the city council level and planning commission level to figure out where we want to go with the property. Does the city want to invest in them? What can they be for us? So that is probably in the next year going to be a big struggle for us.”

Some work is already being done on the Broad Street Wall, which is being painted and cleaned up. The upgrades will include two sizes of trees.

On Campus Drive West, the Department of Public Works helped build the road using extra sand from a project FA Industrial was working on north of Prospect Street. The gravel road is getting closer to being opened up.

At the HoCo Arena, the city is investigating ways to add an elevator for accessibility.

“It’s one of our priorities for funding, just because it makes this all more usable,” Babcock said.

The city is also looking at joining Michigan Main Street, an economic and community development program. Community Development Director Todd Gast said community involvement and engagement would be a large part of the process.

Several ordinances will also be looked at in the city. Another upcoming project is looking at the city’s rental registration, Babcock said. One issue will be looking to see if the limit of three unrelated people in a building should be maintained in the example of a five-bedroom house in a commercial district.

“Other than that, I don’t know if we have any more changes with that,” she said. “Our inspections are going well. We’ve hit a couple of our troubled property owners, and they’re working with us.”

Water and sewer rates could also go up in the city. Those are required to be changed through ordinance; that process will begin once advisory firm Baker Tilly finishes its rate analysis.

Several rates within the ordinance will be changed, Babcock said.

“Some of them are good for the residents, some of them, if they’re doing a project, might cost a little more,” she said. “But our connection fees are maybe a quarter of some of the areas around us.”

The city will also be working on putting an ordinance through on its cross connections with potable and non-potable sources. Hancock is contracting with HydroCore on its commercial properties, which will cost $22,000 over two years. The city will then work on getting a plan in place for its residential properties.

At the Planning Commission level, Hancock will revisit its sign ordinance, which Babcock called “extremely outdated.”

At the top of the meeting, Babcock outlined the city’s general fund outlook. The fund balance has been around $1.6 million, which Babcock said would be coming down. Some of that has been spent on the city’s planned business and technology park, which received a $969,352 award in February from the MEDC Strategic Site Readiness Program for infrastructure improvements.

“The goal for a municipality of our size is about 10% to 15%, and we’re above that right now,” she said. “So we’re sitting pretty good financially, and we hope to continue that.”

The city is applying for a number of grants, including a Safe Streets grant that would create a walking path along Elevation Street from Fir to Campus Drive, connecting the elementary and high schools.