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Residents tell Nevada County board Hidden Grove industrial park would worsen wildfire, traffic and water risks
Summary
Multiple Cedar Ridge residents urged Nevada County supervisors to deny the Hidden Grove light‑industrial project, citing narrow access for evacuations, parking on State Highway 174, chemical exposures and potential groundwater contamination from septic systems.
Several Cedar Ridge residents told the Nevada County Board of Supervisors on May 12 that a proposed light‑industrial project known as Hidden Grove would be incompatible with the neighborhood’s rural character and pose safety and environmental risks.
“There's no space to even turn around and not enough width to accommodate fire trucks while residents are trying to evacuate,” Linda Oke told the board, urging supervisors to preserve the community’s rural life and deny the project. Other speakers raised related concerns about traffic, weekend parking pushing cars onto State Highway 174 and the strain that could impose during wildfire evacuations.
Resident Robert Emmett described long familiarity with the Highway 174 corridor and said the development’s request for a right‑of‑way exemption would reduce required roadway standards and worsen left‑turn and line‑of‑sight problems. “Imagine having to do this on the top of a hill with no line of sight to the traffic coming up the hill at a high rate of speed,” he said, adding that local schools, daycare and churches could be affected by increased traffic and overflow parking.
Speakers also raised environmental and health concerns. “If septic systems fail uphill from residential wells, contaminants don't stay neatly contained,” Dolly Lewis said, urging supervisors to consider the risk to private wells below the project. Public commenter Corey Emmett highlighted industrial chemicals he said are commonly used in light‑manufacturing and repair businesses and warned that the project lacked a plan for oversight; he said such uses can cause acute and chronic health harms to nearby residents who cannot mitigate exposures.
County staff did not take a vote on the project during the May 12 meeting; public comment was closed after a series of speakers from Cedar Ridge. The board’s agenda shows that the Hidden Grove proposal will require both a zoning change and an amendment to the county general plan before it could proceed.
The board did not make a final decision on the Hidden Grove project at the meeting. Staff and the applicant were expected to continue the formal review process, including required environmental and public‑safety analyses, before any zoning or general‑plan changes would be brought back to the board.
