Cranbury Township family fights to save 175-year-old farm from eminent domain
Andy Henry's family has owned the farm on South River Road in Cranbury since 1850. The town wants to build affordable housing on the property.
A 175-year-old family farm hangs in the balance, as Cranbury Township moves to seize it by eminent domain. But the farm owner says it’s not for sale.
"My grandfather and my mother were both born in that house, so it holds a lot of significance for me,” says Andy Henry.
Henry gets choked up and fights back tears as he talks about the family farm where he grew up and its legacy goes back nearly two centuries.
"My grandfather died in 1936, and it was only my grandmother and my mother who were there to run that farm for many years. It's always been in farming, and we want to keep it that way," Henry said.
Henry's family has owned the farm on South River Road in Cranbury since 1850. On April 24, he and his brother, who co-own the farm, got a letter from the town’s attorneys stating that the town wants to take the farm by eminent domain, which in short is the acquisition of private property for public use. Earlier this month, the township passed an ordinance to acquire the 21-acre farm to build affordable housing.
"I’m not against it, but it seems like not a good place for it," Henry said.
Jay Taylor is the former mayor of Cranbury Township. He says it's about more than just saving the farm. It’s about keeping the town inclusive.
"For 60 years, we’ve always been an inclusive community, where we made sure that any of the affordable housing units we’ve done have always been in the residential area so that it’s an integrated community," Taylor said.
According to those fighting to save the property, the Henry farm is surrounded by warehouses. They say building affordable units in the “industrial” part of town would inconvenience the families living there.
"We’re putting them in an industrial zone, right off the New Jersey Turnpike where you smell the turnpike, you hear the warehouse noise. Someone needing to go to the post office has to walk two miles to drop off a package. It’s about doing what’s right for our neighbors and treating people the way we would want to be treated if we were in that circumstance," Taylor said.
In more than 10 years that Henry and his brother have owned the property, developers have offered $20 million to $30 million to buy the farm.
"I don’t want to give up the farm. I don’t want to give up the property. It’s been with us too long, there’s too much history there. It’s not only our history, it’s part of the history of Cranbury," Henry said.
News 12 has reached out to Cranbury Township for comment but did not hear back.
