Andy Henry beat eminent domain. His 21-acre, 175-year-old farm will no longer be targeted for government housing.
Henry’s fight to save his livestock operation from development caught the nation’s eye, followed by the attention of USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba.
An agreement is set to permanently protect the Henry family farm. Concrete will not replace grass.
Refusal to Roll
For decades, Henry declined $25 million development offers for Highland Ranch, his 21-acre farm in Middlesex County, N.J.
However, in April 2025, the Cranbury Township Committee tagged the entire Henry property as the ideal location for an affordable housing apartment complex of 130 units. Henry, a 20-year Air Force veteran, refused to sell, even though his land was designated by the Cranbury Township Committee for replacement with apartment buildings.
He hired attorney Timothy Duggan and held tight to his farm. “The public is disturbed by the government’s actions in this case,” Duggan told Agweb. “The details are so over the top to average people that they think they’re watching a Saturday Night Live skit.”
In July, Henry filed a lawsuit challenging the township’s ordinance allowing seizure by eminent domain. He followed in August with a separate challenge to the affordable housing plan.
The Cranbury Township Committee then narrowed its acquisition of Henry’s land by targeting half the farm for concrete, leaving him with 9 acres and a farmhouse. Again, Henry declined.
Henry’s refusal to roll drew admiration from multiple government figures. As political pressure mounted, the Cranbury Township Committee changed course.
Henry won. On Oct. 24, 2025, Agriculture Secretary Rollins posted an announcement on X: After months of bipartisan, federal-state collaboration, the state of New Jersey has secured an agreement that would spare the 175-year-old Henry family farm from the state’s affordable housing plan. Further efforts are also underway by USDA and the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to protect this prime farmland in perpetuity.
N.J. Gov. Murphy followed with a statement: “From the very beginning, I have opposed efforts to seize the Henry Family Farm through eminent domain. While every town in New Jersey must do its part to resolve our state’s affordable housing crisis, these efforts must be pursued thoughtfully and collaboratively,”
Henry’s farmland was technically saved via a change in the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency rules. (To read the legislation/agreement, see here.)
“My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry told Agweb in June 2025, as the legal saga began unfolding. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.”
Sincerely. A legacy saved.
