Nestled within what is now an industrial area in Cranbury, NJ, sits a 21-acre working farm with deep family roots. The land could’ve easily been sold off decades ago for tens of millions, but the Henry family has endured, walking away from development offer after development offer to preserve the land’s 175-year-old legacy.
“Didn’t matter how much money we were offered,” Andy Henry, who inherited the property in 2012 with his brother Christopher, reports AgWeb. “We saved the farm no matter what. We turned down all the offers to preserve the legacy for our family, city, and even state.”
But now, with pressure to meet obligations set forth by Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy’s affordable housing push, the Cranbury Township Committee wants the farm and they’re not taking no for an answer.
On April 24, 2025, Henry’s mailbox clinked with an official letter of notice from the Committee, tagging his farm as an affordable housing site. “It was incredibly stunning,” he says. “The letter said if I didn’t agree on a price—they’d take my land by eminent domain.”
Sell, or else.
On May 12, the Committee officially approved a plan to take the Henry family farm. Timothy Duggan, an eminent domain specialist and attorney representing Henry, says the Committee’s intentions are “misguided and rushed.”
“Government behavior should be the opposite—preserve instead of destroy,” Duggan contends. “This is not a proper, reasonable use of eminent domain. No way.”
“Andy Henry could sell out for tens of millions of dollars to developers and walk away. It’s mind-boggling in this day and age to think you have someone genuinely standing on principle, but that’s who Andy Henry is, and that’s how much he wants his 175-year-old farm protected. He’s preserving history at no cost to the public.”
“We live in a heavily populated state with family farms lost at a fast and steady rate, and now someone wants to remove another, even though this special one still produces livestock and hay, with 21 acres and a historic home,” Duggan continues. “Literally, there is an architect from upstate New York scheduled to visit the house and look at the porch because he wants to be accurate in one of his rebuilds. That speaks to the amazing historic condition of Andy’s place, and to think the city government chooses to erase it defies common sense.” (AgWeb)
Not only does the land remain a working farm, leased now for raising cattle and sheep, it’s beloved by the community, with passersby often stopping just to watch the animals grazing. Duggan, who says he hasn’t found a single person supportive of the Committee’s plan, points out that even with Cranbury forced to build 265 affordable housing units in the next decade, there are other places to do so. Why take a historic home and farm cherished by the Henry family and locals?
Assemblyman Mike Inganamort, who represents New Jersey’s 24th Legislative District (and for full disclosure is the brother of Townhall’s Corey Inganamort), said the Committee’s eminent domain threat is a “new low.”
“What officials in Cranbury are trying to do is wrong, but make no mistake, they’re doing it because Governor Murphy and Legislative Democrats increased the affordable housing obligations of towns up and down the state just last year,” he told Townhall in a statement. “Forced developments like this are taking the Garden right out of the Garden State."
The case has even attracted the attention of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who said USDA is “exploring every legal option to help," even though this is happening at the local level.
She urged farms that are being threatened by "government overreach or lawfare" to contact the department.
Here is our portal if your farm has been the target of government overreach or lawfare.
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) June 17, 2025
➡️ https://t.co/4bNZu6LZ71
For now, Henry isn’t giving up without a legal challenge.
“The generations before us had to fight to save this farm,” Henry told AgWeb. “They sacrificed. So will I and my brother.”
FIGHT TO SAVE FARM: Cranbury Township is looking to take ownership of a 175-year-old family farm to build affordable housing. But brothers Chris and Andy Henry say that they don't want to sell. https://t.co/c5AQaEaRSq pic.twitter.com/vtJZhXxTlX
— News12NJ (@News12NJ) June 18, 2025
