THE HIDDEN COST OF HIDDEN GROVE: RADIO ADS VS. THE TRUTH
Short on time? Here's what Jerry's not saying:
"Live-work"? His own Master Plan lets residents and business tenants live and rent completely independently of each other. No pairing required, ever.
"Affordable housing for our kids"? 12 of 15 units are market rate. The "affordable" count just changed — but the income ceiling went up right along with it. Affordable housing is the 3rd phase – Jerry’s own business comes first.
"Bringing families home"? Only 3 of the 15 units have a second bedroom. The rest are one-bedroom.
New this week: A legal filing that argues state law should force the Board to approve the rezone — stripping Supervisors of the discretion to just say no.
Keep reading for the receipts.
Jerry Cirino has run a daily radio campaign on one core promise: that Hidden Grove will bring priced-out young people home by letting them live above the businesses they build. It's a compelling story; it's just not what the project's about. We've tried to get on KNCO to bring another perspective to this issue, but they won't have us.
He's also taken to the airwaves to call residents who raise legitimate concerns "NIMBYs" who "don't like children." "NIMBY" is a pejorative term used to silence an opponent when your argument doesn't stand on its own merits. It's used when your argument is built around feelings; not facts. The document he submitted to the County doesn't require a single family to move in, doesn't require a single unit to stay affordable beyond one, and doesn't require a single business owner to live anywhere near their shop. It also puts his own business first. Resolving his years-long code compliance battle is his first priority and the first phase. We will proudly wear the "NIMBY" badge to protect our community.
Once Cedar Ridge is rezoned, the damage is done. The properties around Jerry’s can be expanded to provide more industrial units. The neighboring rural centers like Chicago Park, Peardale, Rough and Ready, and North San Juan, will all be ripe for industrial development now that the precedent is set.
Here's what Jerry is saying publicly, compared to what's written into the Comprehensive Master Plan he submitted to the County.
Claim #1: A new legal filing to take the vote out of the Board's hands
What's being said: Nothing — because Jerry’s kept this one off the radio. It was filed quietly, days before the Board hearing, in a letter from Jerry's attorney straight to County planning staff.
What's actually proposed: The letter argues that because Jerry is now offering more affordable units, state Density Bonus Law entitles him not just to more density, but to the rezone itself, treated as a legal "concession" the County is required to grant except under narrow, specific circumstances.
What this means: Normally, the Board of Supervisors has broad discretion to deny a rezone for exactly the reasons this community has raised for months — wildfire risk, road safety, rural character, and the precedent it sets for every other Rural Center in the county. If this legal argument holds, that discretion evaporates. The Board would only be allowed to deny the rezone on a handful of narrow legal findings; not on whether it's actually the right decision for Cedar Ridge.
Read that again: this isn't a housing project asking for community support anymore. It's a legal filing asking the County to take the community's voice off the table entirely — buried in a letter, filed days before a vote, banking on nobody reading closely enough to notice.
Claim #2: "Living spaces upstairs, workspaces downstairs"
What's being said: In his daily radio ad and at the April 6 Planning Commission hearing, Jerry has repeatedly described Hidden Grove as a live-work model — residents living directly above the businesses they run downstairs.
What's actually proposed: The Comprehensive Master Plan submitted to the County states plainly that the residential and light industrial units are independent of each other:
"The units provide convenient access to on-site businesses and shared amenities, while remaining independent of the industrial suites, with private entrances."
And further:
"...the light industrial units will be able to be leased separately from the residential units."
What this means: There is no requirement that a resident of Hidden Grove operate a business on site, or that a business tenant live above their shop. Anyone can rent one of the 15 residential units with zero connection to the light industrial space below. The "live-work" story is a talking point for the radio, not a term in the deal.
Claim #3: "Affordable" housing for priced-out families and young people
What's being said: Nearly every letter of support (strangely, all worded very similarly) cites the phrase "Bring Our Kids Back Home" and frames the project as a solution to young people being priced out of Nevada County.
What's actually proposed: Of the 15 new residential units (5 per building, across 3 buildings):
3 units are now designated "Low Income", up from just 1 unit at "Very Low Income" in the original plan, per a new filing submitted by Jerry's attorney.
12 units — 80% — remain market rate, with no defined affordability standard, deed restriction, or income cap
The count went up right as public pressure on this exact issue did. He's using CA housing law to try to tie the hands of our elected supervisors, forcing them to give him the concessions he wants, and threatening them with a legal battle.
What this means: More units, shallower commitment. "Low Income" allows a meaningfully higher income ceiling than "Very Low Income"; so the number on paper grew, but so did the income bracket required to qualify. This still isn't housing for the priced-out young people described on the radio. It's a bigger number built from a smaller promise, filed days before a vote.
Claim #4: A model for keeping families in Nevada County
What's being said: Supporters' letters (many using near-identical language) describe the project as reversing decades of young people leaving the county after graduation, unable to afford to return.
What's actually proposed: Each of the 3 buildings has 5 residential units — 4 one-bedroom and 1 two-bedroom. Across the whole project, that's 12 one-bedroom units and only 3 two-bedroom units. Nothing larger than a two-bedroom exists anywhere in the project.
What this means: Just 3 units in the entire project have room for more than one person or a couple. That's not a family housing plan, it's a one-bedroom complex with a handful of two-bedrooms mixed in. If the goal is genuinely to "bring the children home," the unit mix still doesn't back up the pitch — a one- or two-bedroom apartment isn't built for the multi-generational or growing families the radio ads invoke. It's a maximally profitable use of the density bonus, dressed up as a family solution. It’s not about the kids; it’s about Jerry’s business first.
The pattern
Across the ad campaign and the letters of support, the same message repeats: struggling young entrepreneurs, priced out of their hometown, will finally get an affordable place to live and build a business, side by side. It's a sympathetic story, and it's why so many people who don't live in Cedar Ridge, and won’t have to live with the consequences, have written in to support it.
The housing is the trojan horse; the industrial buildings, the re-zoning, and Jerry’s non-compliant business are the Romans. Once Cedar Ridge is rezoned, the damage is done; your community could be the next industrial business park.
If wanting Jerry's promises written into the plan, instead of just spoken into a microphone, makes us NIMBYs, great. We'll wear it. At least we read the document.
Sources: Hidden Grove Comprehensive Master Plan (Millennium Planning & Engineering, July 21, 2025), submitted as Attachment 9 to the Nevada County Planning Commission Staff Report, File Nos. PLN24-0057 et al.