TRENTON, N.J. – Assemblyman Alex Sauickie is slamming Democrats for incentivizing the seizure of active farmland to comply with the state’s affordable housing mandates.
During Monday’s Assembly voting session, Sauickie criticized Democrat-backed legislation (A2390) that prioritizes municipalities in compliance with those mandates in receiving state grants and other financial assistance.
“We have examples of towns so concerned with those mandates that they are using eminent domain to seize active farmland from military veterans to meet them,” Sauickie (R-Ocean) said. He asked that the bill be moved back to second reading for amendment to include language from his bill (A5884) that would prohibit the condemnation of active farmland, a direct response to the attempted condemnation of the historic Henry Family Farm in Cranbury, NJ.
Of the 52 Democrat Assembly members present, 50 voted to table his motion, including the two Democrat Assembly members that represent the Henry Brothers in Cranbury. All 28 Republican Assembly members voted in support of Sauickie’s motion.
“We don’t take farmland from veterans to satisfy overdevelopment mandates,” Sauickie said. “This farm has supported New Jersey families for 175 years. It is feeding people today. What’s happening in Cranbury is unacceptable.”
The farm is currently owned by brothers Andy and Christopher Henry, both military veterans in their 70s. Their family has owned the land since 1850, and today it remains a fully functioning cattle farm. Despite the farm’s historical and agricultural significance, the Cranbury Township Committee is seeking to take the land under eminent domain to satisfy state-mandated affordable housing obligations.
“This is bigger than just Cranbury. This is about what kind of state we want to be. Do we support the families who have fed New Jersey for generations? Or do we continue down a path of overdevelopment at the cost of our agricultural identity? The Henry farm represents everything we should be preserving, history, service, food, and community,” Sauickie said. “I will not stop until this farm, and others like it, are protected by law.”
