A small family farm in Cranbury, New Jersey has become the center of a national controversy after the township tried seizing the land through eminent domain to build affordable housing. CNN’s Meena Duerson reports.

Cranbury

A family farm in Cranbury, New Jersey, owned by Andy Henry's family since before the Civil War, is facing possible seizure through eminent domain as the township seeks land for affordable housing. The move has sparked significant public backlash, especially from national political groups, and has led to heated town meetings and widespread attention.

The township committee, required by state law to provide affordable housing, identified the Henry farm as the only viable site after reviewing other options. The Henry brothers, who now live out of state, have applied for farmland preservation and filed a lawsuit to block the eminent domain process. The town's plan, which would take half of the 21-acre property at market value, is currently under review by a state judge.

The town wanted his farm for affordable housing

When I grew up, none of the fencing, none of the warehouses were here. It was all open fields. It was just heavenly. This farm in Cranberry, New Jersey, has been in Andy Henry's family since before the Civil War. Now he's in danger of losing it to eminent domain. The town wants it for affordable housing. They were talking about four buildings, I think, probably three-story. It's kind of hard to imagine. I don't want to imagine it. It's hard to think about. Henry launched a campaign to save the farm, which quickly got national attention, and became a rallying cry for MAGA supporters around the country, who flooded the town government with verbal abuse. What kinds of things do people say? Can I curse? Yeah, go for it. Okay. You f***ing commie libtards. You know, the f*** do you think you're doing? You're not American. You're just, you know, stealing from the taxpayer. You need to give that f***ing farm back. Matt Scott serves on the township committee that helped pick the farm as a building site. I don't blame people. People are pissed, generally, in the country. They feel like the governing structures are not listening. All they hear is that this five-Democrat member committee in this town is seizing this hard-working farmer's, you know, family legacy. I think it's an easy target for people. The story even caught the eye of the Trump administration. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blasted it as a Biden-style takeover and called Henry on the phone. It was nice to have that kind of high-level support, of course. I was here just trying to take care of the property. And here I am all over the internet. It's mind-boggling. It really is. Is this a political issue to you? Well, I'm trying to make sure it is not a political issue. If you're a Republican, a Democrat, a Bernie supporter, an Independent, I don't think anybody wants people to come in here and say, we're going to take your property because a developer wants it. The township committee is just doing its job. State law requires every municipality in New Jersey to build a set amount of affordable housing. Housing is contingent upon following a narrow set of location requirements. And this was one of the sites that we looked at. Which Scott says eliminated the other options they reviewed. When we started the process and you look at the map, it looked like, oh, this will be a no-brainer. The actual viability of the property as far as its size, they weren't viable. Henry and his brother live in New Mexico and rent the land to a local farmer. Township efforts to reach the brothers went unanswered until one day Henry showed up at a committee meeting. I felt terrible. I was like, wow, there has to be another option. You know, there's no other option. We've vetted all these properties and this is what we're stuck with. Why go the eminent domain path? None of us wanted to eminent domain. No desire to do that. If they don't want to sell, that's kind of where we're at. The council had to file its housing plan by June 30th. I also want to add shame on Matt, shame on Robert, shame on Deborah, shame on Lisa. As the deadline approached, town meetings turned tense. When a man has a farm for 150 years and you want to take it? Do you feel like the bad guy in this story? No, I don't. I empathize 100% with the Henry brothers. Again, I feel like the greater good is what my responsibility is towards them. The town's final plan, which now sits with a state judge, calls for half of the farm's 21 acres. Even if the town forcibly takes the land, it would have to pay market value. Meanwhile, the Henry brothers applied to protect their property through a state farmland preservation program and filed a lawsuit aiming to block eminent domain. Do you think you're going to win this fight? I do think so. But they have to build affordable housing. We're not opposed to that. It's how much and where. What is your hope for how this situation resolves? Well, obviously we want to keep our entire property. I'd like to see some of the divisions in town heal. My ancestors are kind of still here. I kind of feel their presence. That's why we don't want to give it up. It's just like a part of us, you know. That's all I can say. It's just a part of us.

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