City of Oak Park

The City of Oak Park is a diverse and vibrant community that prides itself on being a family-oriented city. The City spans 5.5 square miles and is home to over 30,000 citizens. Oak Park has wonderful resources to draw from, including our 10 public parks.

Oak Park operates under a council/manager form of government as established in its Charter, adopted October 29, 1945. Council meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the first and third Monday of every month.

"When Oak Park became a city in 1945, the community was not much different from the village that was carved out of Royal Oak Township 18 years earlier. Its population had barely increased, and there was just one paved road connecting Oak Park to Detroit; however, big changes were coming. Thousands of veterans returned home after World War II, started families, and bought homes with the assistance of the GI Bill. By 1950, Oak Park was recognized as Detroits first northwest suburb. The residential character of the community was attractive to families, and in 1956 Oak Park was the nations fastest-growing city. By 1976, the citys demographics were dramatically changing. In the 1980s, media stories focused on its extraordinary ethnic diversity within a population of 31,000. When the I-696 Freeway opened in 1990, what had once been a tiny rural village became the center of the regions network of expressways. Through all the changes, the family quality of Oak Park has endured, as illustrated by seven decades of photographs and personal recollections." ~ Exerpt from Oak Park, Images of America.