Changes to .properties files during development not loaded

I have a .properties file under "/conf". Any changes I make to it do not get picked up by Grails, even after I shut down and restart Grails. I have to manually delete the copy in the "resources" folder under ".grails", then start Grails.

The above copies the changed file into the work folder. However, I have the Hibernate query directives in the .properties file, and the first restart of the Grails, even though the properties file is copied, apparently does not pick up the content, and throws an exception about Hibernate 2nd level cache. If I stop and then start Grails, then everything is OK.