The Cranberry Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey voted unanimously in May to approve a plan to acquire through eminent domain Andy Henry’s family farm to meet state-mandated affordable housing requirements.
These requirements come from a bill signed in 2024 by New Jersey’s Governor Murphy mandating every town to change its master plan and zoning to accommodate increased production and preservation of affordable housing to low-to-moderate income families.
The Henry family has been offered $20 to $30 million for their land, but have refused every offer. They own 21 acres that were purchased by his great grandfather 175 years ago.
Today, their farm is surrounded by warehouses and industrial buildings and is the last holdout of farms in the area. “My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry said. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.”
In 1850, Andy Henry’s maternal great-grandfather Joseph McGill, bought the 21 acres of farmland and immediately began growing crops. His original farmhouse burned to the ground in 1879 and was rebuilt in 1880.
Henry, with his brother, Christopher, grew up on the family farm and watched the surrounding land change. The New Jersey Turnpike was built a couple blocks from their property in 1952, with another constructed in 1972, which opened all the land in that area for development.
But the Henry’s 21 acres remained intact as a working farm.
By 2035, New Jersey municipalities must provide their “fair share” of affordable housing for the region by adding or renovating 146,000 affordable housing units calculated by the state.
The Henry family’s fight has now reached President Trump’s administration. On Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated in a post on X, saying the federal Department of Agriculture was in contact with the Henrys and would support them in their legal fight. She also posted an excellent story written by the Farm Journal that’s worth reading.
“While this particular case is a city eminent domain issue, we at USDA are exploring every legal option to help,” Rollins said in the post.
Secretary Rollins has set up a portal for landowners who have “been the target of government overreach.” You can access it here.
American Stewards of Liberty highly recommends any landowner facing harmful action by the federal or state governments to use this portal. It can also be a place to let the Secretary know where the agencies are withholding permits and other approvals. This is the first time that a USDA Secretary has provided landowners with this chance to resolve federal and state overreach.
