Royal Oak Township, MI Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Camping in a Township park is governed by one sentence in Chapter 17 of the Charter Township of Royal Oak Code. Section 17-40 says no person shall camp in a park without first obtaining a camping permit from the director or his designated agent. The director heads the township's department of recreation. The rule covers any public park, or recreation or playground area, or building or facility on it, that the township owns or maintains, whether or not it has been formally dedicated as a park (§ 17-31).

The ordinance does not define camping and prints no fee, maximum stay or application form for the permit, so the Recreation Department decides what it issues. Chapter 17 also contains no cleanup or property-removal protocol for belongings left in a park. The tools it gives are removal of the person and enforcement of the park's other rules.

Three provisions work alongside the camping rule. Section 17-35 makes it unlawful to be in a park from dusk to dawn unless hours are otherwise posted, a Recreation Department special permit was previously given, or the person is in a scheduled Recreation Department activity, and it requires anyone directed to leave by a Township employee to depart immediately. Section 17-44(d) bars loitering within a parked car for any purpose, and § 17-44(f) bars leaving a vehicle on park property after closing hours without a permit from the director. Section 17-41 limits fires in parks to cooking fires in designated picnic areas.

Section 17-34 supplies the practical remedy: in addition to general criminal penalties, a violator can be ejected from the park and/or have a permit confiscated and park privileges suspended for a period the director determines. Officers of any police agency authorized to act within the township, and Township ordinance officers or park rangers, enforce the article and can issue violation tickets (§ 17-47). These park rules apply only to property the township owns or maintains as a park.