Cranbury, New Jersey. A farmer in New Jersey is battling to keep his 175-year-old family property from being taken for an affordable housing project in Middlesex County, and the Trump administration is getting involved in the local eminent domain dispute.
Andy Henry, the owner of Highland Ranch in Cranbury, claims that plans to use eminent domain to seize his 21-acre farm on South River Road have been approved by municipal authorities, who cite the construction of a new housing complex as grounds. Since 1850, Henry’s family has owned the land.
In a social media post on Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering its legal options. We @usda are looking into every legal avenue to assist, even though this specific case involves local eminent domain, Rollins wrote.
Speaking on the phone with Andy Henry from Cranbury, New Jersey’s Highland Ranch.The local government has authorized using eminent domain to take up his family’s 175-year-old farm in order to build affordable homes.The Biden-style governmentpic, whether it’s the Maudes, the Henrys, or others we’ll soon reveal.Twitter: https://0zFSdO9sYj.
Legacy farms oppose progress.
In order to uphold his family’s tradition and continue to run the property as a functioning farm, Henry, 61, is said to have turned down several acquisition proposals over the years, with prices ranging from $20 million to $30 million. He claims that his reluctance to sell is currently working against him.
According to the statement, Andy Henry’s maternal great-grandfather, Joseph McGill, purchased 21 acres of Cranbury property in 1850. For 175 years, my family made sacrifices on this land. Every other farm vanished. We didn’t. We won’t.
In an area now dominated by warehouses and industrial structures, the land is one of the few undeveloped sections along South River Road. Township authorities are putting housing requirements ahead of generational stewardship, according to Henry.
Local jurisdiction combined with federal scrutiny
Although the local government started the eminent domain case, federal officials say the USDA’s involvement highlights worries about growing pressure on agricultural land owned by families. Despite the fact that the matter is under municipal jurisdiction, Rollins denounced what she called a Biden-style government takeover of our family farms.
Although a formal USDA intervention has not yet been declared, officials indicate that more information about potential federal assistance for landowners in comparable situations will be made public in the next few days.
The Henry farm case is currently a hot spot in the larger national discussion about local housing responsibility and property rights.
The action by the Trump administration is an unusual federal response to a historic family farm in central New Jersey that is at the center of a small-town eminent domain dispute.
