Posted on 06/12/2025 8:39:18 PM PDT by lowbridge
For three decades, Andy Henry has declined $20-30 million offers for his 21-acre, 175-year-old farm. Ironically, local government is using his perseverance to take the entire property via eminent domain and replace pasture with affordable housing.
Grass for concrete? Legacy surrendered? No deal, Henry says. Period. Full stop.
On South River Road, in Middlesex County, N.J., warehouses and industrial buildings have replaced the once abundant farms of yesteryear—except a lone holdout.
“My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry adds. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.”
In 1850, Joseph McGill—Andy Henry’s maternal great-grandfather—bought 21 acres of farmland in Cranbury, tucked almost dead-center between New York City and Philadelphia.
McGill broke ground and began growing crops immediately
-snip
In 2012, Henry (in tandem with Christopher) fully inherited the property. The siblings invested $200,000 in upkeep on the farm—all while buyout offers ballooned to $20-30 million.
“Didn’t matter how much money we were offered,” Henry says. “We saved the farm no matter what. We turned down all the offers to preserve the legacy for our family, city, and even state.”
Henry currently resides in New Mexico, but makes frequent returns to his family home.
“Our farm in now leased for raising cattle and sheep. The town loves driving by and seeing something besides warehouses. Keeping this legacy intact and passing it to the next generation has been, and is always, our plan.”
Cranbury Township Committee also has a plan: Cover Henry’s farm with housing units.
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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at agweb.com ...
This kind of crap is why people loathe government.
I wonder how much federal $$$ Cranbury Township will get out of this.
Taxachusetts.
A RERUN OF THE KELO DECISION???
CITY IS WRONG
I don’t see how the Cranbury Township Committee can’t force someone to sell.
Where does Trump come down on this situation?
NJ.
And you wonder why a guy armors up a Komatsu bulldozer and seeks revenge?
(Pssssttt Andy - you can't take it with you.)
Seize the land of every member of the Cranbury Township Committee. No “laws for thee but not for me”.
Mount Laurel decision. NJ Supreme Court required towns to build affordable housing. Legislature set quotas to comply. If a town doesn’t build housing or pay another town to build housing, builders can sue to force the town to let them develop and include affordable housing. After 20 years or so, affordable reverts to market-rate, and the town needs to build more.
The state is so brilliant that the median strip of the Garden State Parkway has been counted as buildable acreage.
Checkmate.
The President can't legislate by fiat ... that power is reserved to judges.
"affordable housing" is another scam. The developer figured out he could spend 1/4 of that buying some local town politicians, and he could get the land after all.
That's their excuse. If they want to maintain the ratio of "low income housing", let them knock down their own houses. That'll increase the ratio because you know they aren't living in low-income housing.
NEW JERSEY; NOT Mass.!
New Jersey.
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