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In 1961, the Packard property was sold to the Ford Motor Co., which used the facilities to produce automotive trim parts and
for parts storage until the 1990s.
Water and sewer service started to expand north into the township, particularly following pollution concerns in the Clinton
River.
Voters in the township considered incorporating in late 1966 as the city of Shelbydale. There was also talk of merging
Shelby Township and Utica in 1967. In 1972, new Shelby Township offices were constructed at 24 Mile and Van Dyke. To avoid
confused motorists looking for the new hall and its proximity to Disco, the road signs leading into the historic little hamlet
were taken down. Thus Disco finally lost its identity, although it continues to be identified on some road maps.
Fire swept through and destroyed Spring Hill Farm in January 1973 as firefighters stood helplessly by, unable to bring
in enough water to put the fire out. The Shelby Township Fire Dept. added six medics and inaugurated EMS services for township
residents.
A historic locomotive and caboose were purchased by the township in 1977 and placed next to the newly restored Andrews
Schoolhouse on the township municipal grounds.
In 1978, the township became the Charter Township of Shelby. By the 1980s, the spread of residential construction began
running into problems with Shelby Township's past. The township farms, mushroom farms in particular, began disappearing when
the incompatibility of farms and their earthy smells and residential neighborhoods began creating conflict. Some ugly problems
from the past also came up to haunt township residents.
For many years, when the area was considered to be "the country" Shelby Township was home to several landfills
and chemical disposal facilities. Some of the waste was burned while other quantities were dumped into the ground. LDI, a
liquid waste disposal facility, caught fire in 1982 when chemicals waiting for disposal caught fire. " I believe it spontaneously
combusted," said George Morehouse Jr., the township fire chief at that time. He remembered the fire well, especially
since he was burned helping put the fire out.
In 1983, the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency named the former G&H Landfill site as an enviromental superfund site
because of, among other contamination, the prescence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
Shelby Township also got a little smaller in the late 1980s. After a bitter court battle, Utica successfully annexed 347
acres of prime real estate from southern Shelby Township in 1987.
In the late 1980s, the township political scene, never friendly to begin with, turned ugly with the evolution of the "musical
chairs" board, where a group of board members resigned, then appointed their spouses as replacements.
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