Bizarre Update in New Jersey Farm Seizure as City Offers to Only Take Half of Farmer’s Land

The replacement of a 175-year-old farm with low-income housing just doglegged. In a nutshell: We’ll only take half your land and cover it with apartments. You’re welcome.

Highland Ranch, located in Cranbury, N.J., is targeted for seizure by eminent domain. Despite the farm’s continuous agriculture production since 1850, the Cranbury Township Committee initially intended to erect housing units across the operation’s 21 acres, and force owner Andy Henry to sell.

However, according to Henry, the Committee has had a change of heart, instead only targeting half the acreage for transition to concrete. The Committee’s new offer, says Henry, was disclosed on June 9, and would leave him with a farmhouse and 9 acres of pasture. He intends to fully contest the 9-acre offer.

(Cranbury Township Committee has not yet responded to Farm Journal requests for comment.)

Adding heavy irony to a surreal situation, Henry has kept the farm running despite offers of $20 to $30 million for the property.

As pressure mounts on Henry, the replacement of his 175-year-old farm with affordable housing units has caught the concern of USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

(Photo by Google Earth)

Let’s Go
On June 17, Rollins caught wind of the potential loss of Henry’s farm via an X post from @wakeupnj. On her personal X account, @BrookeLRollins, she responded: We hear you, and I am looking into this situation immediately. We must protect our family farms at all costs. Standby.

Shortly afterward, Rollins called Henry and posted on her USDA X account, @SecRollins (along with a repost on her personal account), citing an Agweb article, “City Gov to Seize 175-Year-Old Farm by Eminent Domain, Replace with Affordable Housing:”

Hours later, still on June 17, Rollins posted and update from her personal account, announcing the involvement of Alina Habba, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey:

According to New Jersey law, Cranbury must build 265 affordable housing units over the next decade.

However, taking Henry’s land may be “constitutionally suspect,” contends Joshua Windham, senior attorney at Institute for Justice.

“The Fifth Amendment does allow the government to take property through eminent domain but there has to be a public use for that property,” Windham says. “The traditional way of thinking about public use is a park, a highway or a right of way for a railroad that the public is going to be able to access. Of course, the government has a role in our modern economy in providing welfare to people but something like public housing strikes me as a little bit odd. To say it is a public use to take property from one person and just sort of give it to other people strikes me as constitutionally suspect.”

To hear more about property rights and the battle against “Open Fields” doctrine, watch the latest Unscripted podcast from Farm Journal.