Royal Oak Township is a charter township in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Royal Oak Township borders Detroit to the north, roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the township had a population of 2,374. It is separate from, and independent of, the city of Royal Oak.
The township is the only remaining unincorporated portion of the original Royal Oak survey township, which was organized in 1833. With an area of since 2004, Royal Oak Charter Township is the state's smallest charter township by area and the second-smallest overall township in the state after Novi Township.
History
Royal Oak Township was established in 1833 as a regular, civil township, and at one time consisted of all or parts of the following modern cities: Hazel Park, Ferndale, Oak Park, Madison Heights, Pleasant Ridge, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Berkley, and Clawson. The township began to shrink beginning in 1921 with the incorporation of the cities above. To provide greater protection from easy annexation, the township incorporated as a charter township in 1972. Currently, the township has neither its own police department nor a post office. Its police department was disbanded in 1998.
2003 and 2004 annexations
From the incorporation of Madison Heights in 1955 to 2004, the township consisted of two small non-contiguous parts within Oakland County. The larger portion lies along Eight Mile Road, adjacent to the cities of Detroit, Oak Park, and Ferndale. A second portion, located to the northwest and bordering Oak Park and Southfield, was the subject of a series of annexations and conditional land transfers in 2003 and 2004
Two property-initiated annexation elections in 2003 consisted of Crown Pointe Plaza office complex, Lincoln Towers Apartments, Biarritz Club/Rue Versailles Apartments, in which the township was estimated to have lost 20% of its property tax value to Oak Park. The 425 agreement, which was to run 35 years and covered all previously annexed areas of the township—except Bridgewater Village Apartments—plus the remaining unannexed areas of the township, was agreed upon by the city and township in October. It came into effect on November 1, 2004, the day preceding the election to annex Bridgewater Village and Lincoln Woods Apartments, fully completing the transfer of the northwest part of the township to Oak Park, and ending litigation from the township against the city. Oak Park amended the 425 Agreement on January 16, 2006, to bring in Bridgewater Village Apartments after resolving litigiation with the property owner concerning taxes and the associated costs of annexation.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , all land.