Lake Charter Township is a charter township of Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,316 at the 2020 census.
The township is located in the west central portion of the county. Lake Michigan and the city of Bridgman are to the west, Lincoln Township to the north, Baroda Township to the east, Weesaw Township to the south, and Chikaming Township to the southwest. The township is most known as the home of the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant.
Communities
- Browntown was a village in Lake Township that was platted in 1861 where what is today Browntown Road crossed the Pere Marquette Railway. It no longer exists.
- Livingston is a small unincorporated community in the township at the junction of Livington and Gast roads, just east of I-94 and Red Arrow Highway at in section 8 in the northern part of the township. A post office was established in August 1890 and operated until July 1912.
In 1848, a village of 80 blocks was platted in section 25 with the name Livingston, but nothing became of it and it soon became farm property.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.20%, is water.
I-94 passes through the township, parallel to the Lake Michigan shore. Warren Dunes State Park is in the southwest of the township.
Flooding
Lake Charter Township derived its name from the existence of a high water table. The community was built on top of an ancient lake named "Lake Baroda".
Due to the soil composition and failure of state and local governments to maintain infrastructure to manage storm water, the area is prone to flooding. There has been significant flooding in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023. In some of these cases, homeowners have been displaced for several weeks or months due to the extent of damage. Although homeowners have experienced significant losses due to flooding, the area is not recognized as an official FEMA flood zone. Berrien County has not requested a declaration of a state of emergency in any of these instances so residents are unable to recoup of the costs for damages.