Shafter City Council
May 5, 2026

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 7
Shafter by the Numbers
The data tells a story of momentum—a community with the assets to compete and the growth to sustain it, if strategic choices connect industrial strength to shared prosperity.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2023; Lightcast 2025 Discovery Insights: What the Data and Community Told Us The following insights emerge from months of research, analysis, and engagement. They are not a comprehensive inventory of everything we learned—they are the findings that most directly shaped the strategic choices in this plan.

INSIGHT
1 Shafter's Success Was Not Accidental—and the Next Chapter Requires the Same Intentionality.
"People think this just happened, but it didn't. It took years of decisions lining up." Shafter's economic position is the product of deliberate, patient decisions—entitling industrial land before demand arrived, investing in infrastructure to match logistics and manufacturing trends, and building a reputation for regulatory competence and follow-through that few communities of any size can match. What looks like "overnight success" from the outside was, in reality, the product of decades of planning and execution—particularly decisions to align rail access, freeway proximity, and entitled industrial land with emerging logistics trends before the market fully materialized.

Stakeholders consistently described this as the foundation of the city's credibility with developers and employers. The strategy ahead must build on this legacy of intentionality while clearly articulating where new forms of strategic thinking are needed as the city's economy grows more complex. 9%
population growth from
2018–2023—nearly 3x
faster than Kern County.
80%
of residents are people of
color—the most diverse
city among regional
peers.
9 in 10
households include
children—the highest
concentration in the peer
set.
74%
of jobs are in traded
sectors—more than
double the national
average.
$1B+
in annual exports
generated by Shafter’s
traded-sector economy.
$250M
in annual supply chain
imports—leakage that
represents local
opportunity.
70%
fewer bachelor’s degree
holders than the U.S.
average—the widest
structural gap.

4.1%
housing vacancy rate—
the lowest among all peer
communities.

8 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026

INSIGHT
2 Demographic Momentum Hasn’t Translated to Economic Prosperity. "We built something solid. The question is how it keeps working when the people who built it aren't here anymore.”
Shafter's demographic profile is a genuine strategic asset. Prime-age workforce participation runs 20% above the national average. More than 80% of residents are people of color, making it the most diverse community among its regional peers. Population grew 9% from 2018 to 2023—three times faster than Kern County as a whole. Nine in ten households include children, signaling a young, familyoriented community with long-term labor force potential that most communities would envy.

But the economic indicators tell a different story. Poverty remains elevated. Median earnings rank lowest among regional peers—37% below Clovis, the highest-earning comparable community.

Population is outpacing job creation at a ratio of approximately 3:1. Closing this gap—ensuring that Shafter's young, growing, diverse population can build careers and wealth locally rather than commuting to opportunity elsewhere—is the central challenge of this strategy.

INSIGHT
3 Jobs Are Here, But Value Per Job is Not.
"We know how to get projects through the door. The question is whether we're being strategic about which doors we open."
Three-quarters of Shafter's employment comes from traded sectors—more than double the national average—generating over $1B in annual exports. But there is a mismatch between activity and value.

In most export-oriented economies, traded-sector jobs generate significantly more gross regional product per worker than their employment share would suggest. In Shafter, however, output closely tracks job count rather than exceeding it: traded sectors account for roughly equal shares of employment and GRP, meaning jobs are present but value per job is lower than benchmarks.

Productivity and wages lag regional and national averages across all five target clusters.

INSIGHT
4 $250M in Supply Chain Leakage Is the Most Immediate Opportunity. "Why are we importing what we already know how to support?” Shafter's traded sectors import approximately $250 million annually in goods and services that could be sourced locally or regionally—inputs flowing out of the community that represent unrealized employment, wages, and fiscal return. These are not exotic products. They are inputs purchased to support industries that already operate here—maintenance services, packaging materials, component parts, professional services, and equipment that existing employers buy from outside the community because local suppliers don't yet exist. This import leakage represents a fundamentally different kind of economic development opportunity than greenfield recruitment. The demand already exists. The purchasing relationships are established. The industries generating that demand are rooted in Shafter and unlikely to leave.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 9

INSIGHT
5 Shafter Wins on Capability, Not Industry Label.
"The thing that Shafter was able to do better than most places is say, okay, this is who we are. This is what we have. And they stayed pretty focused.”
Cities often pitch themselves by sector: an ag town, an energy hub, a logistics city. It is an intuitive move, but a weak one. Sector labels are broad, every region claims them, and they rarely describe the actual work a firm is shopping for when it chooses a location. What firms are really asking is more specific: Can this place process at scale? Store and move temperature-sensitive product? Run automated fulfillment? Maintain equipment in the field? Clear permits and stay compliant? Those are functions, not industries—and they are what location decisions actually turn on. Rather than marketing against peer communities on cost—a race that inland California will rarely win against Nevada, Arizona, or Texas—Shafter should position around execution advantages that reduce risk for firms:
water certainty, infrastructure reliability, California regulatory compliance as a competitive differentiator, workforce readiness, and cross-cluster integration.

INSIGHT
6 Workforce is the Prerequisite, Not the Byproduct.
“If we don't get the workforce right, none of the other strategies matter." Across all five target clusters, workforce availability emerged as the binding constraint on growth.

Communities that demonstrate training capacity attract investment. Communities that promise future training lose to those with operational programs. The workforce overlap across clusters is remarkable:
the same maintenance technicians, controls specialists, industrial electricians, welders, mechatronics specialists, and quality professionals serve logistics, manufacturing, energy, agriculture, and aerospace. This means workforce training should be built as a unified platform serving all five clusters—not five separate programs. Because Shafter has 70% fewer bachelor's degree holders than the U.S. average, the pathway forward is certifications, apprenticeships, and stackable credentials— not four-year degrees.

INSIGHT
7 Cross-Cluster Integration is Shafter’s Competitive Edge. "It's not about walking away from what works. It's about making sure we're not boxed in.” Shafter's five target clusters are not independent industries competing for attention and resources— they are interconnected systems that reinforce each other. No other Central Valley community combines Shafter's specific mix of assets in a single location: I-5 and SR-99 highway access, dual Class I railroads, development-ready industrial land, proximity to $70B+ in Central Valley agricultural output, 20,000 MW of renewable energy capacity permitted or planned in Kern County, and rural airspace advantages for drone operations. That portability will make Shafter's economy structurally more durable than communities where a single cluster's contraction leaves the workforce with nowhere to go.

10 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026

INSIGHT
8 Energy is Structural, Not Peripheral.
“Coming up with solutions where you can be in control of your own destiny—not having to rely on legacy power and being independent.”
Energy is not simply another industry vertical for Shafter—it is a competitiveness platform that underlies every other cluster in the strategy. Kern County remains one of the most energy-abundant geographies in California—producing 71% of the state's crude oil while hosting 4 GW+ of wind capacity and 20,000 MW of renewable energy permitted or planned. This creates a dual strategic posture. Defensively, energy strategy means protecting existing firms from cost escalation.

Offensively, energy represents a growth platform for manufacturing, field services, and storage integration.

INSIGHT
9 Corridors Are Economic Strategy, Not Just Infrastructure. "We don't want to become just another place people drive past.

Lerdo Highway and 7th Standard Road move goods and workers efficiently—but they operate as conduits rather than destinations. Workers travel them but do not stop along them. Residents pass through but shop elsewhere. As residential growth accelerates along 7th Standard and employment density increases along Lerdo, the disconnect between industrial function and livability becomes a strategic liability. Corridors also intersect directly with workforce strategy: housing supply, type, and location along economic corridors must coordinate with employment growth.

INSIGHT
10 Institutional Capacity Must Match the Complexity of the Economy. “We used to be able to coordinate over lunch. Now we need something more formal.” Shafter cannot execute this strategy alone—but it also cannot execute it with informal systems designed for a simpler economy. Regional partnerships are essential: the same partners appeared in every cluster analysis—B3K Prosperity, Kern EDC, Bakersfield College, and CSU Bakersfield. Shafter's role is not to duplicate what these partners do. It is to position as the preferred site within the broader ecosystem—contributing development-ready land, workforce capacity, and regulatory competence that makes it the location where regional strategies become operational. Second, Shafter's own internal coordination must formalize. Managing five industry clusters, coordinating regional partnerships, aligning workforce and housing strategies, and executing corridor investments simultaneously exceeds what informal coordination can sustain.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 11
SECTION 2: SWOT ANALYSIS
The following SWOT analysis synthesizes findings from the research, benchmarking, industry cluster analysis, and stakeholder engagement process. It satisfies the in-depth regional analysis requirement under 13 C.F.R. § 303.7(a)(2). Strengths and weaknesses reflect internal conditions—assets and gaps within Shafter's direct control or influence. Opportunities and threats reflect external dynamics— market forces, policy environments, and competitive trends that Shafter must respond to strategically.

THE GOOD THE NOT SO GOOD

WHAT WE HAVE
Strengths
What resources can we deploy? What are our
advantages? What’s working well?
• Multimodal logistics platform: dual Class I rail,
I-5 and SR-99 access, newly operational
container exchange
• Development-ready industrial land with
efficient entitlement processes
• Wonderful Industrial Park and anchor employer
stability
• City-owned dark fiber broadband network
• Minter Field Airport with 100+ acres of
greenfield leasable land and UAS-capable
airspace
• Kern County energy abundance (solar, wind,
natural gas, emerging hydrogen)
• Youngest median age and highest prime-age
workforce participation among regional peers
• Most diverse community (80%+ residents of
color) among regional peer set
• Track record of regulatory competence and
permit efficiency
• 74% traded-sector employment—more than
double national average
• $1B+ in annual traded-sector exports
• Strong K–12 CTE programs including logistics,
agriculture, and manufacturing pathways
• Established regional partnerships with B3K
Prosperity, Kern EDC, Bakersfield College,
CSU Bakersfield
Weaknesses
What abilities are we lacking? Where are we
starting to struggle? How can we overcome these?
• Wages rank lowest among regional peers—
37% below highest-earning comparable
community
• Population growth outpacing job creation at
approximately 3:1 ratio
• Economic output per traded-sector worker
lags regional and national benchmarks
• 70% fewer bachelor's degree holders than the
U.S. average
• Limited post-secondary education and
certification infrastructure locally
• $250M in annual supply chain leakage to
outside suppliers
• Corridors (Lerdo Highway, 7th Standard Road)
function as pass-throughs rather than
destinations
• Infrastructure gaps (sewer, electrical, grade
separations) constraining corridor
development
• Limited institutional capacity for multi-cluster
economic development management
• Manufacturing and aerospace clusters present
but fragmented—no formal cluster identity
• Small business ecosystem underdeveloped
relative to industrial base
• Housing vacancy rate of 4.1%—lowest among
all peer communities, constraining workforce
housing

12 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 WHAT IS OUT THERE Opportunities
Who might most value our strengths? What trends
work in our favor?
• Inland Empire logistics market saturation
pushing operators to seek Central Valley
locations
• $250M supply chain leakage convertible to
local supplier development
• Cold chain fulfillment as the highest-wage,
highest-growth logistics segment
• Central Valley's $70B+ in agricultural output
driving demand for processing and cold
storage
• National UAS/drone regulatory framework
expanding agricultural and commercial
applications
• Reshoring and near-shoring trends creating
demand for domestic advanced manufacturing
• Kern County positioned at center of
California's energy transition—20,000 MW
renewable permitted or planned
• Federal and state funding availability for
workforce, clean energy, infrastructure, and
logistics
• Corridor development opportunity as
residential growth creates service demand
along 7th Standard
• Workforce growth driving demand for more
diverse housing types beyond single-family
development
• Cross-cluster workforce platform serving all
five clusters from shared skills foundation
• AgTech testbed potential connecting growers,
startups, and research institutions
• Regional partnerships providing amplified
capacity beyond what Shafter can achieve
independently
• California regulatory compliance as a
competitive differentiator for national market
access
Threats
What headwinds do we face? What might pose a
challenge? What could go wrong?
• Logistics automation reducing entry-level job
count in warehouse and fulfillment operations
• Sector concentration risk: logistics and
agriculture together represent majority of
employment base
• Competition from Nevada, Arizona, and Texas
on cost and regulatory environment
• SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act) water constraints intensifying across
Central Valley
• California grid reliability constraints and energy
cost escalation for industrial users
• Oil and gas employment decline in Kern
County with limited direct renewable energy
job substitution
• Stagnation risk: population and industrial
growth continuing without shared prosperity
outcomes
• Housing affordability pressure undermining
workforce pipeline as workers can't afford to
live locally
• Failure to formalize regional partnerships and
internal coordination systems before strategy
stalls
• Loss of key institutional knowledge and
leadership continuity as the economy grows
more complex
• Industrial land fragmentation or inappropriate
zoning undermining large-lot logistics and
manufacturing capacity

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 13
Economic Resilience
Economic resilience—the ability of regions to anticipate, withstand, and bounce back from economic shocks—is embedded throughout this strategy rather than treated as a standalone concern. Shafter faces two distinct vulnerability profiles that the CEDS specifically addresses:

First, sector concentration risk. With logistics and agriculture together representing the dominant share of employment, Shafter is exposed to disruption in either cluster. The strategy directly addresses this through deliberate diversification—growing manufacturing, energy services, and AgTech—while reinforcing the cross-cluster workforce platform that allows workers to move between sectors if one contracts.

Second, structural prosperity risk. Shafter's current trajectory produces growth without broadly shared economic gains. The strategy builds resilience to this form of stagnation through workforce pathways, supply chain leakage capture, and small business ecosystem development—ensuring that industrial activity generates careers and wealth across the community, not just employment statistics.

Both resilience dimensions are addressed across all six strategic goals. Goal 7 specifically targets institutional resilience—ensuring that the city has the organizational capacity, coordination systems, and leadership continuity to execute a complex multi-cluster strategy over a five-year horizon.

14 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
SECTION 3: STRATEGIC DIRECTION AND ACTION PLAN
The following strategic direction and action plan builds directly on the findings from the SWOT analysis and incorporates elements from land use planning, workforce development, transportation, energy, and corridor investment frameworks. It satisfies the requirement under 13 C.F.R. § 303.7(a)(3).

For each goal, an implementation overview table identifies responsible stakeholders, timetables, and funding opportunities—including local, state, and federal resources.

A Framework for Shafter's Future
The strategy is organized around six interconnected goals—each addressing a critical dimension of economic competitiveness, and each reinforcing the others. The system logic matters: strengthening logistics creates demand for manufacturing. Modernizing agriculture generates need for cold chain and processing infrastructure. Energy affordability protects margins across every cluster. Workforce development is the prerequisite that makes all four cluster strategies viable. Corridor investment shapes whether growth translates into community identity or simply more pass-through traffic. And institutional capacity determines whether the city can execute at the pace this strategy demands. No single goal succeeds in isolation.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 15
Vision Statement
Shafter — Where Industry Meets Opportunity.

Built to Produce. Rooted in Community.

Turning industrial strength into shared prosperity—connecting clusters, corridors, and careers across the Central Valley's most competitive platform.

16 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
How We Will Know if We're Succeeding
Clusters are diversifying and creating higher-value jobs. Shafter's economy is scaling automationenabled logistics and food processing and diversifying into specialized manufacturing and energy services—raising wages and fiscal returns per worker.

Cluster growth is anchored by the attraction of leading firms in each target sector, establishing a foundation for supplier networks, workforce alignment, and follow-on investment over time.

Workforce pipelines are connecting residents to careers. Bakersfield College partnerships are operational, certificate programs are enrolling, and employers across clusters are hiring locally trained technicians, operators, and specialists—not just recruiting from outside.

Corridors are becoming destinations. Lerdo Highway and 7th Standard Road are showing visible signs of intentional investment—gateway improvements, new services, mixed-use activity, and an identity that signals Shafter's next chapter. Priority nodes—particularly at key intersections such as Lerdo & Cherry, 7th Standard & Cherry, Lerdo & Zerker Road, 7th Standard & Zerker Road, and Downtown— are being advanced as corridor anchors.

Regional partnerships are producing measurable outcomes. B3K, Kern EDC, Bakersfield College, and other partners are collaborating on workforce programs, business attraction, and infrastructure investments with Shafter as a preferred implementation site.

Shafter's story is reaching the right audiences. Site selectors, employers, and investors recognize Shafter as a cross-cluster industrial platform—not just a logistics address—and the city has the marketing tools and capacity to sustain that positioning.

Existing businesses and entrepreneurs are supported. Small businesses have access to resources, technical assistance, and city processes that help them start, grow, and stay in Shafter—and the entrepreneurship ecosystem is becoming more visible and intentional.

City processes remain a competitive advantage. Shafter continues to offer a coordinated, high-touch development experience—bringing together all relevant departments early in the process and maintaining continuity through project delivery. As activity scales, sustaining this level of responsiveness and predictability remains critical to preserving the City’s reputation for execution.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 17
Goal 1: The Logistics Advantage
We will scale Shafter's logistics advantage by supporting automation-driven, technology-enabled distribution and supply chain operations.

Why It Matters
Logistics is Shafter's dominant economic cluster—and its greatest strategic choice. The city's combination of I-5 and SR-99 access, dual Class I railroads, development-ready industrial land, and proximity to $70 billion in Central Valley agricultural output has already attracted significant warehouse and distribution investment. A newly operational container exchange and growing intermodal rail capacity add a structural efficiency advantage that no other Central Valley market currently offers.

But the national logistics industry is undergoing a structural transformation. The vast majority of North American warehouses have not yet adopted automation, and the Inland Empire's saturation is pushing operators to seek Central Valley locations with available land and freight corridor access. This creates both opportunity and risk. Shafter can capture the next wave as higher-value, technology-enabled fulfillment—automated distribution, cold chain operations, integrated warehouse management—or it can accept more commodity warehousing that locks the city into low-wage, low-multiplier activity.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

1.1 Build automation-ready
logistics infrastructure
City of Shafter,
Wonderful Real
Estate Development,
BNSF, private
developers
Year 1
(standards
development)
ongoing
EDA Public Works, USDOT BUILD
grants, CA Freight Infrastructure
Program, SB 1 freight funds

1.2 Anchor cluster around
cold chain and specialized
fulfillment
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, private logistics
operators, Wonderful
Real Estate
Development
Years 2–5 USDA Value-Added Producer Grants,
USDA Rural Development, EDA, CA
infrastructure bank

1.3 Build logistics
technology workforce
before facilities arrive
Bakersfield College,
Kern High School
District CTEC/ROC,
City of Shafter,
logistics employers
Years 1-5 Perkins V CTE funds, CA Strong
Workforce Program, DOL
apprenticeship grants, EDD displaced
worker funds

1.4 Leverage intermodal rail
and trade gateway
City of Shafter, BNSF,
Kern EDC, CA Trade
& Commerce Agency
Years 2–5 EDA Public Works, USDOT BUILD
grants, state trade development funds

1.5 Recruit strategically and
market as integrated supply
chain community
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, B3K Prosperity
Year 1
(materials)
Year 2-5
(deployment)
EDA planning grants, GO-Biz site
marketing, regional economic
development funds

18 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Strategy 1.1—Build Automation-Ready Logistics Infrastructure Why It Matters
Infrastructure standards determine the quality of investment a community attracts. Logistics facilities built to minimum specifications lock tenants into manual operations with lower wages and shorter commitments. Facilities built to automation-ready standards attract technology-forward operators making longer-term capital investments, hiring higher-skilled workers, and generating stronger economic multipliers. California's regulatory environment reinforces this approach: operators who build to California's emissions, zero-emission vehicle, and energy efficiency standards can serve the entire North American market. Rather than treating regulation as a barrier, Shafter should market compliance-ready infrastructure as a competitive advantage.

What’s Needed
• Establish tiered development standards for new logistics facilities that support automation-ready operations—combining a baseline set of requirements (such as reinforced floors, high-capacity electrical service, fiber connectivity, and EV charging infrastructure) with enhanced standards that can be phased in or incentivized over time.
• Assist incoming operators with regulatory navigation, positioning Shafter as a location where compliance is streamlined rather than burdensome.
• Coordinate infrastructure investments with energy strategy (Goal 4), ensuring logistics facilities have access to renewable energy, microgrid connectivity, and distributed generation options.

Strategy 1.2—Anchor the Cluster Around Cold Chain and Specialized Fulfillment Why It Matters
Cold chain facilities generate higher wages, longer leases, more jobs per square foot, and stronger economic multipliers than conventional warehousing. Temperature-controlled logistics is among the fastest-growing segments in the industry, driven by e-commerce grocery, pharmaceutical distribution, and food safety requirements. Shafter's proximity to Central Valley agricultural production—combined with freight corridor access—creates a unique "farm-to-frozen-to-fulfillment" advantage that no other Central Valley community can replicate.

What’s Needed
• Identify and prepare sites with dedicated cold chain infrastructure potential—proximity to agricultural inputs, power capacity for refrigeration, and freight corridor access. • Recruit a national cold chain operator as an anchor tenant, with infrastructure, permits, and workforce training aligned before active recruitment begins.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 19
Strategy 1.3—Build the Logistics Technology Workforce Before Facilities Arrive Why It Matters
Communities that build training capacity before facilities arrive capture investment from operators who consistently cite workforce availability as their top site selection factor. Shafter already has a foundation few small cities can match: high school students enroll in logistics and distribution programs, graduate with industry-recognized certifications, dual-enroll with Bakersfield College, and participate in mechatronics and robotics apprenticeships with national employers. The opportunity is to deepen and formalize these pipelines, targeting technical roles—robotics technicians, automation maintenance specialists, data analysts—that command wages above $60,000 annually and serve every cluster in this plan.

What’s Needed
• Partner with Bakersfield College to expand logistics technology training—robotics maintenance, mechatronics, data analytics, warehouse management systems, and cold chain operations—with stackable credentials that create clear career pathways. • Expand existing high school CTE programs to include automation exposure, systems integration, and data literacy aligned with next-generation logistics operations. • Develop employer-driven apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs with logistics operators, ensuring training matches actual job requirements rather than generic curriculum. • Build on existing mechatronics and robotics apprenticeships with national employers, formalizing these as multi-employer training models that can scale across the cluster.

Strategy 1.4—Leverage Intermodal Rail and the Emerging Trade Gateway Why It Matters
Shafter's dual Class I rail access and emerging intermodal capacity represent a logistics infrastructure position that most Central Valley communities cannot match. As nearshoring and domestic freight routing patterns shift, communities with developed intermodal capacity will gain first-mover advantage in attracting inland distribution operations serving national and international supply chains.

What’s Needed
• Work with BNSF and regional freight partners to understand planned rail capacity investments and align land use, site preparation, and infrastructure sequencing with intermodal expansion timelines.
• Market intermodal rail access and the container exchange as integrated capabilities in business attraction materials targeting national logistics operators. • Identify sites with direct rail spur access as priority industrial recruitment parcels.

20 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Strategy 1.5—Recruit Strategically and Market Shafter as an Integrated Supply Chain Community
Why It Matters
Shafter's competitive differentiation is not cost alone—it is the integration of infrastructure, workforce, energy access, and agricultural proximity in a single location. Marketing this integration requires a deliberate, sector-specific narrative that positions Shafter in the site selector's mental model as a cross-cluster supply chain platform, not a generic industrial park.

What’s Needed
• Develop sector-specific marketing materials targeting cold chain operators, 3PL providers, and technology-enabled fulfillment companies, emphasizing the logistics platform's unique integrated advantages.
• Participate in logistics industry trade shows, site selector events, and national real estate forums with a consistent, evidence-based value proposition.
• Coordinate marketing with Kern EDC and B3K Prosperity to ensure Shafter's recruitment messaging aligns with regional positioning.
• Build a site inventory with detailed infrastructure data, permit timelines, and workforce pipeline documentation that reduces due diligence friction for prospective operators.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 21
Goal 2: From Field to Future
We will position Shafter as a hub for value-added agriculture and next-generation agricultural innovation.

Why It Matters
Agriculture is Shafter's foundational sector—the anchor of the regional economy, the source of much of the freight that flows through Shafter's logistics infrastructure, and the production platform that makes cold chain, precision technology, and processing investment viable. But the sector is under pressure: primary crop production faces cost increases, water constraints, and projected employment decline as mechanization accelerates. The opportunity is not to protect primary agriculture as-is. It is to capture more value from it—through processing, cold chain, and agricultural technology—while building the capacity to serve the broader Central Valley's $70 billion in annual agricultural output.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

2.1 Attract food processors,
cold chain operators, and
value-added agriculture
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, Wonderful
Orchards, regional ag
producers
Years 2–5 USDA Value-Added Producer Grants,
USDA Rural Development, EDA, CA
CDFA grants

2.2 Lower barriers for small
producers and emerging
AgTech
City of Shafter,
Bakersfield College,
CSU Bakersfield, Kern
Venture Group, The
Reservoir
Years 2–5 USDA RBEG, SBA grants, CDFA small
farm programs, EDA, private
foundation funds

2.3 Train the food
manufacturing workforce of
the future
Bakersfield College,
Kern High School
District, food
processors, City of
Shafter
Years 1-5 Perkins V, CA Strong Workforce, DOL
sector partnership grants, USDA
workforce funds

2.4 Establish Shafter as a
precision agriculture and agtech services hub
City of Shafter, CSU
Bakersfield, UC Davis
extension, Minter
Field Airport District,
ag-tech firms
Years 2–5 USDA AFRI, SBIR/STTR ag-tech
programs, EDA, USDA Rural
Development

22 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Strategy 2.1—Attract Food Processors, Cold Chain Operators, and Value-Added Agricultural Operations
Why It Matters
Processing, packaging, and cold chain infrastructure are the highest-value economic activities that can be layered onto existing agricultural production. Processed food commands significantly higher economic value than raw commodity—and the processing operations that create that value generate more jobs per acre, higher wages, stronger multipliers, and greater fiscal returns than primary production alone. Shafter's combination of agricultural output, freight infrastructure, available industrial land, and water infrastructure creates conditions that food processors and cold chain operators actively seek.

What’s Needed
• Market Shafter's "farm-to-frozen-to-fulfillment" value chain—the combination of local agricultural inputs, cold chain infrastructure, and intermodal freight access—as a unified competitive advantage.
• Coordinate agricultural recruitment with logistics strategy (Goal 1) to position the integrated value chain as a differentiated offering.

Strategy 2.2—Lower Barriers for Small Producers and Emerging AgTech Why It Matters
Not every food producer can afford standalone processing, packaging, and compliance infrastructure.

Co-packing facilities, shared commercial kitchens, and modular processing reduce capital barriers and enable small and mid-sized firms to access markets that require certified production environments. For Shafter, this approach complements the larger-scale recruitment in Strategy 2.1 by building a broader base of food producers, supporting local entrepreneurship, and creating a pipeline of growing firms that may eventually need their own facilities. Shafter's active agricultural operations, logistics infrastructure, and available land also create conditions that AgTech incubators are actively seeking.

What’s Needed
• Connect small food producers with technical assistance, business development resources, and market access support through partnerships with regional organizations and Bakersfield College. • Position Shafter as an AgTech testbed by connecting growers willing to host pilots with agricultural technology startups, partnering with educational institutions on applied research.

Strategy 2.3—Train the Food Manufacturing Workforce of the Future Why It Matters
Food processing is becoming an advanced manufacturing activity. Automated packaging lines, robotic palletizing, AI-driven quality inspection, cold chain monitoring, and digital traceability systems require workers with technical skills that overlap significantly with logistics and manufacturing clusters. The same mechatronics technicians, industrial maintenance specialists, and quality control professionals

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 23
needed in logistics (Goal 1) and manufacturing (Goal 3) serve food processing operations. Training should be built as a shared platform, not a standalone program.

What’s Needed
• Establish an Ag Sector Partnership connecting growers, food processors, education providers, and workforce intermediaries to identify emerging skill needs, co-design credentials, and aggregate training demand.
• Expand Bakersfield College workforce programs to include food manufacturing technology— automated processing, packaging systems, cold chain operations, food safety compliance, and quality control.
• Partner with existing food processors to develop employer-driven apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs aligned with automation adoption timelines.

Strategy 2.4—Establish Shafter as a Precision Agriculture and Ag-Tech Services Hub Why It Matters
The Central Valley produces $70 billion in annual agricultural output, but much of the technology enabling that production is developed elsewhere and deployed as a service from outside the region.

Ag-tech firms headquartered in the Bay Area and Southern California are actively seeking inland pilot sites and demonstration partnerships closer to actual production. Shafter's combination of large-scale agricultural operations, industrial land, airport infrastructure, and proximity to Bakersfield College and CSU Bakersfield research capacity creates the conditions for a localized ag-tech services cluster.

What’s Needed
• Identify and market sites suitable for ag-tech field testing, demonstration, and co-location— particularly parcels with proximity to both agricultural operations and airport/UAS infrastructure. • Facilitate partnerships between Central Valley growers, ag-tech companies, and research institutions to host pilot deployments and applied research. • Coordinate ag-tech positioning with the aviation and drone strategy to create a unified narrative around Shafter as a hub for applied agricultural technology and aerial systems.

24 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Goal 3: Make It Here
We will grow Shafter's role in aviation technologies and advanced manufacturing.

Why It Matters
Shafter's advanced manufacturing base is not aspirational—it is measurable. The cluster analysis shows a concentration of industrial activity tied to building materials, fabricated components, and energyadjacent manufacturing. These firms are embedded in export supply chains that extend well beyond Kern County, benefiting from central market access, freight connectivity, available industrial land, and a workforce accustomed to production environments.

The opportunity analysis also identifies aerospace and advanced air mobility as a significant forwardlooking opportunity. Kern County remains one of California's most aviation-intensive geographies, national projections show a structural shortage of aircraft maintenance technicians, and Shafter's airport presents a rare asset: greenfield land, leasing flexibility, agricultural adjacency for drone testing, and operational flexibility not available at larger commercial airports.

The sector is not starting from zero. It is starting from fragmentation. Shafter has industrial density but limited cluster cohesion, aviation adjacency but limited aerospace capture, workforce capacity but incomplete employer integration, and airport flexibility but no defined recruitment thesis. The strategies that follow are designed to organize these assets into a coherent platform.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

3.1 Formalize the
manufacturing cluster
narrative and recruit
complementary firms
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, existing
manufacturers, B3K
Prosperity
Year 1
(narrative
and BRE);
ongoing
recruitment)
EDA, CA GO-Biz, SBA, regional
industrial development funds

3.2 Leverage the airport as
an economic platform for
aviation and drone
technology
Minter Field Airport
District, City of
Shafter, CAU
Bakersfield, ag-tech
firms
Years 2–5 FAA UAS programs, DOD aerospace
and AFWERX grants, EDA, CA
Aerospace Workforce Initiative

3.3 Build shared
manufacturing and
aerospace workforce
infrastructure
Bakersfield College,
CAU Bakersfield, Kern
High School District,
manufacturers
Years 1-5 Perkins V, CA Strong Workforce, DOL
apprenticeship grants, DOD
workforce programs

3.4 Prepare sites and
streamline processes to
compete for reshoring
investment
City of Shafter,
Planning Dept., Kern

EDC, CA EDD
Year 1
(inventory/
streamlining)
Years 2-5
(recruitment)
EDA site readiness, CA industrial
development bonds, SBA programs

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 25
Strategy 3.1—Formalize the Manufacturing Cluster Narrative and Recruit Complementary Firms
Why It Matters
Existing advanced manufacturers did not choose Shafter because of branding campaigns. They located here because of practical competitive advantages: proximity to raw materials, central access to West Coast markets, available natural gas, favorable weather conditions, and reliable labor. But this has not yet been translated into a formal cluster narrative that builds density or recruitment momentum. Manufacturers operate successfully but largely independently. Industrial clusters do not form organically at scale—they are named, articulated, and reinforced.

What’s Needed
• Develop an "Advanced Industrial Materials" positioning narrative that highlights raw material access, Central California logistics, reliable industrial workforce, and favorable operating conditions.
• Identify supply chain gaps among existing manufacturers and target recruitment of complementary firms that reduce import leakage and strengthen local supplier networks. • Engage existing manufacturers through Kern EDC and direct outreach to understand expansion plans, workforce needs, and supply chain relationships. • Coordinate manufacturing recruitment messaging with cross-cluster integration positioning— manufacturing is the shared technical platform across all five clusters.

Strategy 3.2—Leverage the Airport as an Economic Platform for Applied Aviation and Drone Technology
Why It Matters
Minter Field is a differentiated economic asset. 100+ acres of leasable greenfield land, full hangars, agricultural adjacency enabling drone field testing, and airspace without the congestion constraints of commercial airports represent a combination that aviation and drone-technology firms are actively seeking. The FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program and subsequent regulatory frameworks have created viable commercial applications for drone operations in agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and package delivery—all sectors with strong Kern County presence.

What’s Needed
• Work with Minter Field Airport District to develop a formal aviation and aerospace economic development strategy—defining target tenants, infrastructure requirements, lease frameworks, and workforce alignment.
• Market available hangar and greenfield land to UAS operators, agricultural technology firms, MRO operators, and aviation training providers.
• Establish Minter Field as a designated UAS testing and demonstration zone, attracting drone technology firms seeking rural airspace access near real agricultural operations.

26 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
• Partner with California Aeronautical University to align aviation workforce pipelines with airport tenant needs.

Strategy 3.3—Build Shared Manufacturing and Aerospace Workforce Infrastructure Why It Matters
Advanced manufacturing and aerospace share a workforce foundation with logistics and energy:
mechatronics, precision machining, industrial maintenance, welding, and quality systems. Building workforce training as a shared cross-cluster platform means that the investment in any single training program serves multiple employer sectors. This dramatically improves the return on investment for training providers and creates career flexibility for workers.

What’s Needed
• Formalize Bakersfield College and California Aeronautical University partnerships for manufacturing and aerospace workforce programs, targeting precision machining, mechatronics, welding certification, quality management, and aviation maintenance. • Develop employer-driven training programs with existing manufacturers, connecting curriculum to actual facility needs rather than generic programming. • Build on the cross-cluster workforce platform: workers trained for manufacturing also serve logistics automation, food processing, and energy equipment maintenance.

Strategy 3.4—Prepare Sites and Streamline Processes to Compete for Reshoring Investment
Why It Matters
National trends in reshoring and near-shoring are creating real demand for domestic advanced manufacturing capacity. Communities that can demonstrate shovel-ready sites, streamlined permitting, available workforce, and favorable operating conditions capture investment that once went offshore. California's regulatory environment creates barriers, but Shafter's demonstrated track record of regulatory efficiency is a genuine differentiator.

What’s Needed
• Reduce permitting timelines for advanced manufacturing uses, establishing clear processing timelines and single-point-of-contact coordination.
• Develop sector-specific incentive criteria for manufacturing recruitment, with transparent conditions and standardized processes.
• Coordinate with state and regional partners on available site certification programs that signal market readiness to national site selectors.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 27
Goal 4: Power the Whole Economy
We will support resilient energy systems while growing a cluster of companies that design and deploy these technologies.

Why It Matters
Energy is not simply another industry vertical for Shafter—it is a competitiveness platform that underlies every other cluster in the strategy. Irrigation systems, cold storage, food processing, warehouse automation, heavy industrial equipment, and freight movement all operate within tight cost margins shaped by electricity and fuel pricing. Shafter's economic base is disproportionately energyintensive, and as prices fluctuate and regulatory requirements evolve, margin pressure intensifies across every cluster simultaneously.

Kern County remains one of the most energy-abundant geographies in California—producing 71% of the state's crude oil while hosting 4 GW+ of wind capacity and 20,000 MW of renewable energy permitted or planned. This creates a dual strategic posture. Defensively, energy strategy means protecting existing firms from cost escalation through microgrids, distributed generation, and wholesale procurement pilots. Offensively, energy represents a growth platform—manufacturing equipment, providing field services, integrating storage systems, and positioning for hydrogen as demand aggregation makes local production viable.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

4.1 Establish an Energy
Competitiveness Task Force
and action agenda
City of Shafter, B3K
Prosperity, SoCal
Gas, energy
employers, Wonderful
Real Estate
Year 1 (task
force and
agenda);
ongoing
EDA planning, CA Energy
Commission grants, CA CPUC
technical assistance

4.2 Develop commercial and
industrial energy resilience
programs
City of Shafter, SoCal
Gas, solar/microgrid
providers, industrial
employers
Years 2–5 CA CPUC programs, CA Energy
Commission distributed generation
programs, USDA REAP loan, SBA
programs

4.3 Position Shafter for
hydrogen and long-term
energy opportunities
City of Shafter, B3K
Prosperity, First Public
Hydrogen Authority,
CA Resources
Corporation
Year 1
(monitoring);
Years 3-5
(pilots and
investment)
CA cap-and-trade revenues, CA
Energy Commission hydrogen
programs, private investment
partnerships

4.4 Build energy systems
workforce aligned with
cross-cluster technical skills
Bakersfield College,
CSU Bakersfield,
energy employers,
City of Shafter
Years 1-5 CA Strong Workforce Program, EDD
displaced worker retraining, Perkins
V, DOE Office of Manufacturing and
Energy Supply Chains workforce
programs

28 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026

4.5 Assess municipal power
feasibility for future growth
areas
City of Shafter, legal
counsel, utility
consultants
Years 1–2 EDA planning grants, CA Energy
Commission feasibility funds
Strategy 4.1—Establish an Energy Competitiveness Task Force and Near-Term Action Agenda
Why It Matters
Energy cost and reliability are top concerns for every sector in this strategy. Without a coordinated approach, individual firms manage energy challenges in isolation, missing opportunities for aggregated procurement, shared infrastructure, and collective advocacy. A task force creates a structured mechanism for identifying near-term actions, coordinating with utilities and energy providers, and positioning Shafter for state and federal energy programs as they become available.

What’s Needed
• Convene major industrial energy users, utility providers, and city staff to assess energy cost and reliability conditions and identify immediate actions.
• Develop an energy competitiveness agenda with specific near-term priorities—rate structure advocacy, pilot program participation, and infrastructure investment. • Engage state energy agencies and utilities (SoCal Gas, regional electrical providers) on industrial rate programs, distributed generation pilots, and reliability investments. • Connect with B3K Prosperity's energy transition work to ensure Shafter's agenda aligns with regional strategy and amplifies collective influence.

Strategy 4.2—Develop Commercial and Industrial Energy Resilience Programs Why It Matters
Microgrids, distributed solar, battery storage, and wholesale procurement arrangements can meaningfully reduce energy costs and improve reliability for energy-intensive industries. Communities that facilitate access to these solutions become more competitive for industrial investment and better protect existing employers from margin pressure.

What’s Needed
• Identify opportunities for shared solar and microgrid development in key industrial districts, reducing per-unit costs through aggregated investment.
• Explore wholesale energy procurement arrangements for industrial users, aggregating demand to access better pricing than individual firm contracts allow. • Assist existing businesses with available clean energy incentive programs—federal IRA credits, USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), and state CPUC programs.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 29
• Coordinate energy resilience investments with corridor infrastructure planning (Goal 5) to ensure new growth areas have energy-efficient infrastructure from the outset.

Strategy 4.3—Position Shafter for Hydrogen and Long-Term Energy Opportunities Why It Matters
Hydrogen as a distributed fuel source remains speculative in the near term, but Kern County's natural gas infrastructure, agricultural waste streams, and renewable energy capacity create real conditions for eventual viability. Shafter should not make premature infrastructure commitments—but it should build the relationships, use case documentation, and demand aggregation capacity needed to respond quickly when funding and deployment pathways materialize.

What’s Needed
• Work with B3K Prosperity, the First Public Hydrogen Authority, and CA Resources Corporation to develop concrete Shafter-based hydrogen use cases—agricultural irrigation, industrial heat processes, freight movement—that can serve as the basis for grant applications. • Explore hydrogen demand aggregation across agricultural, industrial, and transit users to make local production more economically viable.
• Monitor state funding developments and position Shafter to respond quickly if cap-and-trade revenues or private investment create viable hydrogen deployment pathways.

Strategy 4.4—Build Energy Systems Workforce Aligned with Cross-Cluster Technical Skills
Why It Matters
The clean energy workforce gap is the industry's binding constraint. Critically, energy systems workforce needs overlap substantially with logistics, manufacturing, and food processing: the same industrial electricians, controls technicians, mechatronics specialists, and maintenance professionals serve all four clusters. Fewer than 5% of Bakersfield-area oil and gas workers are projected to find comparable employment in direct renewable energy production—but energy-adjacent manufacturing and services offer realistic transition pathways for workers with transferable industrial skills.

What’s Needed
• Formalize Bakersfield College partnership for energy systems training with short-term certificates in industrial electrical systems, energy equipment maintenance, and controls technology. • Leverage state workforce programs and displaced worker retraining grants to support training for workers transitioning from oil and gas into energy-adjacent manufacturing and services. • Develop employer-driven training partnerships with energy equipment manufacturers and field service operators, ensuring curriculum matches actual job requirements.

30 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
• Formalize CSU Bakersfield partnership to monitor emerging energy technologies, industry conditions, and applied research opportunities—ensuring workforce training and infrastructure planning remain aligned with industry demand.

Strategy 4.5—Assess Municipal Power Feasibility for Future Growth Areas Why It Matters
Municipal power for existing service territory involves litigation, capital intensity, and extended timelines that make it impractical as a near-term strategy. But Shafter's growth trajectory includes master-planned developments and new industrial areas that are not yet served by any utility. For these greenfield areas, the calculus is different: the city could explore establishing city-controlled distribution zones from the outset. A feasibility assessment—not a commitment—would determine whether the economics, regulatory pathway, and operational requirements justify further pursuit.

What’s Needed
• Commission a municipal power feasibility study focused exclusively on future growth areas—new master-planned developments, industrial expansion zones, and greenfield parcels not currently served by an existing utility.
• Model generation, transmission, and rate design scenarios to evaluate whether city-controlled distribution could offer competitive energy pricing for industrial and commercial users. • Evaluate governance and operational requirements—staffing, regulatory compliance, infrastructure investment—to determine whether Shafter has or can build the institutional capacity to operate as a municipal utility in targeted zones. • Coordinate findings with the Energy Competitiveness Task Force and long-term land use planning to ensure energy strategy and growth management are aligned.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 31
Goal 5: Corridors That Tell Our Story
We will transform Lerdo Highway and 7th Standard Road from pass-throughs into economic destinations that support industrial growth and enhance quality of life.

Why It Matters
Lerdo Highway and 7th Standard Road are not simply roadways. They are Shafter's economic frontage—the spatial stage on which the city's next phase of economic development will either consolidate or diffuse. Lerdo serves as the primary gateway from the 99 into the city and its industrial employment base. 7th Standard links emerging residential neighborhoods to job centers and regional retail markets. Together, they carry the daily flow of workers, freight, and households that sustain the local economy.

Yet these corridors operate as conduits rather than destinations. Workers travel them but do not stop along them. Residents pass through them but shop elsewhere. Industrial traffic flows across them, but little economic activity anchors to them. Three structural tensions define their future: mobility versus value capture; infrastructure sequencing versus market timing; and cohesion versus bifurcation as new housing and historic core relationships evolve.

Integration with Other Plans
The corridor strategies below are specifically designed to integrate with and leverage other planning frameworks: the General Plan update (land use alignment), the transportation network (grade separations, arterial improvements), workforce development strategy (housing-jobs alignment), and energy infrastructure planning (utility sequencing). This cross-plan integration is not aspirational—it is required for any of these corridor investments to be financially viable.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

5.1 Sequence infrastructure
ahead of frontage activation
City of Shafter (Public
Works, Planning), CA
State (sewer/utility
programs)
Year 1
(strategy
adoption);
Years 2-5
(implement)
EDA Public Works, CDBG, CA SB 1
local streets, enhanced infrastructure
financing districts

5.2 Anchor catalytic nodes
rather than uniform corridor
redevelopment
City of Shafter,
private developers,
B3K Prosperity, local
businesses
Years 1–2 EDA, CDBG, HUD place-based
investment, state Main Street
programs

5.3 Align corridor land use
with industrial
competitiveness and
workforce capture
City of Shafter
(Planning Dept.), Kern
County, property
owners
Years 1–5 Planning grants, General Plan update
funds, state housing programs

32 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026

5.4 Develop a unified
corridor identity
City of Shafter, B3K
Prosperity, local
businesses, design
consultants
Years 2–5 EDA, CDBG, CA transportation
enhancement funds, private
sponsorship

5.5 Launch a downtown
activation program
City of Shafter, local
business owners, B3K
Prosperity, Kern EDC
Years 2–5 CDBG, CA Main Street program, SBA
small business programs, local BID
formation
Strategy 5.1—Sequence Infrastructure Ahead of Frontage Activation Why It Matters
Infrastructure capacity—sewer extensions, electrical coordination, water quality, grade separations, canal alignments—is the silent determinant of corridor evolution. Without coordinated sequencing, private development either stalls or bears disproportionate cost. Industrial expansion, residential development, and long-term diversification ambitions are all moving forward simultaneously, but the physical systems that support them must keep pace.

What’s Needed
• Adopt a formal Corridor Infrastructure Strategy aligned with the General Plan update, mapping phased sewer and utility expansion west along Lerdo and fully through 7th Standard. • Align grade separations and north–south arterial improvements with economic node development, prioritizing intersections designated as catalytic nodes. • Identify financing mechanisms—including enhanced infrastructure financing districts or similar tools—that distribute cost across future assessed value rather than front-loading burden onto early frontage projects.
• Coordinate infrastructure phasing with industrial site preparation (Goal 3) and energy infrastructure planning (Goal 4) to avoid redundant investment.

Strategy 5.2—Anchor Catalytic Nodes Rather Than Attempt Uniform Corridor Redevelopment
Why It Matters
The Lerdo Highway and 7th Standard Road corridors are both long, linear systems. Attempting to activate them evenly will dilute investment and produce incremental, inconsistent frontage. The more effective approach is strategic concentration—formally designating 2–3 priority nodes at key intersections as corridor anchors that function as mixed-use service clusters, visually distinct gateways, and sites for coordinated public-private investment.

What’s Needed
• Formally designate priority nodes—particularly at intersections such as Lerdo & Cherry and 7th Standard & Cherry—as corridor anchors with concentrated public investment, design standards, and development incentives.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 33
• Develop node-specific development frameworks that define desired uses, density, design standards, and public realm improvements for each designated intersection. • Concentrate workforce-serving and visitor-serving commercial uses at designated nodes—food service, childcare, convenience retail, healthcare access, lodging, and fuel. • Use public realm investments at nodes—streetscape, lighting, landscaping, gateway signage—as catalytic anchors that signal quality expectations for adjacent private development.

Strategy 5.3—Align Corridor Land Use with Industrial Competitiveness and Workforce Capture
Why It Matters
Lerdo sits adjacent to Shafter's industrial base—an adjacency that is a competitive advantage, but one that requires discipline. Premature parcel fragmentation or speculative strip-commercial zoning along Lerdo undermines large-lot industrial flexibility that logistics, manufacturing, and food processing operators require. At the same time, intentionally layering complementary uses—workforce-serving retail, flex office, small-format food and service businesses—in proximity to employment clusters allows the corridor to remain industrially competitive while capturing multiplier effects from daily worker flows.

What’s Needed
• Update zoning and design standards along Lerdo to protect large-lot industrial capacity on parcels suitable for logistics, manufacturing, and food processing, while designating specific corridor segments for mixed-use workforce-serving development. • Coordinate land use planning with residential development along 7th Standard—ensuring that housing density, commercial zoning, and frontage standards create a viable environment for neighborhood-serving retail and services.
• Develop design standards that differentiate the industrial gateway feel of Lerdo from the mixeduse residential feel of 7th Standard.

Strategy 5.4—Develop a Unified Corridor Identity That Bridges New Growth and the Historic Core
Why It Matters
Shafter's corridors currently lack a visual identity that signals the city's economic character or connects its industrial strength to its community values. As one corridor workshop participant described it, the corridors are a "means to an end"—useful, but not defining. A unified design identity—gateway treatments, wayfinding, landscape standards, and consistent signage—signals investment, builds community pride, and creates the sense of arrival that anchors economic activity.

What’s Needed

34 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
• Develop a Corridor Identity and Design Standards document that establishes visual standards, gateway treatment locations, signage specifications, and landscape requirements for both Lerdo and 7th Standard.
• Invest in early gateway and wayfinding improvements at the Lerdo/SR-99 entry point as a visible proof of commitment.
• Engage the community in a participatory design process that reflects Shafter's agricultural roots, industrial strength, and diverse cultural identity in the corridor design. • Coordinate corridor identity with marketing strategy (Goal 6) to ensure physical investment and brand positioning reinforce each other.

Strategy 5.5—Launch a Downtown Activation Program
Why It Matters
Downtown Shafter represents the historic core of the community—a place where local businesses, civic institutions, and community gathering spaces define the city's identity. As residential growth and industrial investment accelerate on the corridors, downtown risks being bypassed rather than reinforced. An activation program focused on reducing friction for small businesses, improving public realm, and increasing foot traffic creates a complement to corridor investment rather than a competitor.

What’s Needed
• Streamline permitting and business formation processes for downtown businesses, establishing clear timelines and single-point coordination for new operators. • Support public realm improvements in downtown—streetscape, lighting, seating, events infrastructure—that increase dwell time and spending.
• Connect downtown business owners to regional small business resources, technical assistance, and financing through Kern EDC and B3K Prosperity.
• Explore a Business Improvement District or similar mechanism to fund ongoing marketing, maintenance, and activation programming.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 35
Goal 6: Built to Execute
We will strengthen Shafter's economic development capacity to support businesses, partnerships, and the delivery of this strategy.

Why It Matters
This plan asks the City of Shafter to coordinate five industry clusters, two corridor strategies, a network of regional partnerships, and an accountability system—simultaneously. That represents a fundamentally different organizational demand than the project-by-project attraction model that built the city's initial industrial base. Managing sector partnerships, convening stakeholders, maintaining business retention relationships, tracking performance metrics, coordinating with regional partners, and executing marketing strategy requires dedicated staff capacity, defined roles, and management systems designed for ecosystem complexity. Without intentional investment in internal capacity, strategies will be adopted but under-executed—not because of insufficient ambition, but because of insufficient bandwidth.

Implementation Overview
Strategy Lead Stakeholders Timeframe Funding Opportunities

6.1 Build regional
partnerships and position
Shafter as the preferred
implementation site
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, B3K Prosperity,
Bakersfield College,
CSU Bakersfield
Year 1
(agreements);
Years 2-5
(ongoing)
EDA planning grants, state
partnership grants, regional
workforce funds

6.2 Develop a marketing
and business attraction
program
City of Shafter, Kern
EDC, GO-Biz, private
marketing consultants
Year 1
(materials)
Years 2-5
(deployment)
EDA, GO-Biz marketing support,
local economic development funds

6.3 Support existing
businesses and build the
entrepreneurship ecosystem
City of Shafter, B3K
Prosperity, SBDC,
Kern Women's
Business Center,
Bakersfield College
Years 1–5 SBA programs, CDBG, EDA, CA
microlending programs, CDFI funds

6.4 Build internal
institutional capacity for
multi-cluster strategy
management
City of Shafter (city
manager, economic
development dept.)
Year 1
(foundation);
ongoing
EDA planning and technical
assistance, state capacity building
grants
Strategy 6.1—Build Regional Partnerships and Position Shafter as the Preferred Implementation Site
Why It Matters

36 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
The same partners appeared in every cluster analysis: B3K Prosperity for clean energy and workforce development, Kern EDC for business attraction and incentive navigation, Bakersfield College for training and certifications, and CSU Bakersfield for four-year pathways. Kern County's energy transition, manufacturing modernization, and logistics expansion are regional challenges requiring regional solutions. Shafter's role is not to duplicate what these partners do. It is to position as the preferred site within the broader ecosystem—contributing development-ready land, workforce capacity, and regulatory competence.

What’s Needed
• Formalize partnership agreements with Kern EDC, B3K Prosperity, Bakersfield College, and CSU Bakersfield—establishing roles, referral protocols, joint marketing commitments, and shared accountability mechanisms.
• Position Shafter as the preferred implementation site for regional strategies, contributing development-ready sites, workforce training pipeline access, and regulatory efficiency to regional partnership value.
• Participate actively in regional economic development forums and workforce planning bodies, ensuring Shafter's priorities are represented in regional funding applications and investment decisions.
• Establish regular coordination cadence with regional partners—quarterly partnership meetings, annual goal alignment, and co-reporting on shared metrics.

Strategy 6.2—Develop a Marketing and Business Attraction Program Why It Matters
Shafter's story has not kept pace with Shafter's reality. The city's integrated logistics platform, crosscluster manufacturing base, agricultural technology potential, and energy infrastructure position are not widely known among site selectors, national employers, or regional investors. A deliberate marketing program—grounded in data, sector-specific, and consistently reinforced—closes the gap between what Shafter is and what the market believes Shafter to be.

What’s Needed
• Develop sector-specific marketing materials for each of the five target clusters, emphasizing functional competitive advantages rather than general location attributes. • Build a maintained site inventory with detailed infrastructure, permitting timeline, and workforce pipeline data that reduces due diligence burden for site selectors. • Participate in national logistics, manufacturing, food processing, and energy industry trade events with a consistent evidence-based pitch.
• Develop an annual economic development report that documents progress, highlights wins, and sustains Shafter's visibility with state and regional partners.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 37
• Conduct a supply chain mapping initiative across all five target clusters—identifying goods, services, and components that existing local industries currently import—and build a targeted recruitment list of supplier companies that could fill those gaps locally.

Strategy 6.3—Support Existing Businesses and Build the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Why It Matters
Small businesses are the primary employment pathway for residents who lack access to corporate employment but have the skills, drive, and community knowledge to build their own economic futures.

Small business support is not a separate program from economic development strategy—it is infrastructure. Reducing friction in permitting and licensing, connecting entrepreneurs to capital and technical assistance, and creating visible support systems for local business formation signal that Shafter invests in its own residents, not just outside recruitment. Every corridor node (Goal 5) needs local businesses to activate it.

What’s Needed
• Streamline permitting, licensing, and business formation processes—creating clear timelines, single points of contact, and documented guidance for entrepreneurs starting or expanding businesses in Shafter.
• Connect small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to regional resources—Small Business Development Centers, SCORE mentorship, Kern EDC programs, and Bakersfield College business development services.
• Develop a small business retention and expansion program that systematically engages existing businesses to understand needs, identify expansion opportunities, and address challenges before they become relocations.
• Support local business activation at corridor nodes—prioritizing food service, childcare, healthcare access, and workforce-serving retail that captures spending from daily worker flows. • Promote local spending and visibility for Shafter businesses through shop-local campaigns, business spotlight programs, and coordinated promotions.

Strategy 6.4—Build Internal Institutional Capacity to Manage a Multi-Cluster Economic Development Strategy
Why It Matters
This plan asks the City of Shafter to coordinate five industry clusters, two corridor strategies, a network of regional partnerships, and an accountability system simultaneously. Managing sector partnerships, convening stakeholders, maintaining business retention relationships, tracking performance metrics, coordinating with regional partners, and executing marketing strategy requires dedicated staff capacity, defined roles, and management systems designed for ecosystem complexity.

38 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
What’s Needed
• Assess current economic development staffing against the implementation demands of this plan and identify capacity gaps—particularly in sector strategy management, business retention, stakeholder coordination, and marketing.
• Define dedicated roles or responsibilities for sector partnership management, ensuring that each cluster's convening structure has a consistent city point of contact. • Invest in professional development and technical capacity for economic development staff— including training in incentive navigation, site selection processes, data analysis, and stakeholder facilitation.
• Establish management systems that enable consistent implementation oversight without depending on institutional memory, including shared project tracking and knowledge management tools.
• Establish an economic development concierge program providing businesses and investors with a single coordinated point of contact and structured project support throughout the development process.
• Create a concise economic development priorities and incentive reference guide that outlines target sectors, development standards, and the conditions under which incentives or negotiated support may be considered—replacing the current case-by-case approach with a transparent, standardized framework.
• Create a concise economic development priorities and incentive reference guide that outlines target sectors, development standards, and conditions under which incentives may be considered.
• Conduct a supply chain mapping initiative across all five target clusters—identifying the goods, services, and components that existing local industries currently purchase from outside the region and building a targeted recruitment list of supplier companies that could fill those gaps locally.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 39
SECTION 4: EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
The following evaluation framework identifies performance measures used to evaluate the implementation of this CEDS and its impact on Shafter's regional economy, satisfying the requirement under 13 C.F.R. § 303.7(a)(4). Metrics are organized by strategic goal and include both process measures (tracking implementation activity) and outcome measures (tracking economic impact). This CEDS will be reviewed annually, with a full update no less than every five years.

Overall System Indicators
At the system level, the strategy's success will be measured against improvements in Shafter's fundamental economic conditions across the following headline indicators:

Indicator Baseline (2023) 5-Year Target Direction
Median household wages Lowest among regional peers
(37% below Clovis)
Increase toward regional peer
median
Traded-sector output per worker Tracks employment share; lags benchmarks
Increase to exceed employment
share (sector productivity growth)
Employment diversity Concentrated in logistics and
agriculture
Growth in manufacturing, food
processing, and energy employment
shares
Educational and credential
attainment
70% fewer BA holders than U.S.
avg.; limited certifications
Increase in workforce credentials and
certifications
Population-to-job growth ratio ~3:1 population growth vs. job creation
Reduce toward 1.5:1 over plan
horizon
Supply chain leakage $250M annually Measurable reduction through local supplier development

40 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Goal-Level Performance Measures
Goal 1: The Logistics Advantage

LOGISTICS CLUSTER GROWTH
Track new and expanded logistics facility square footage, with differentiation between commodity warehouse space and automation-ready, cold chain, or specialized fulfillment space. Monitor average wages for new logistics positions compared to existing cluster median. Measure job creation by role type, distinguishing technical operations roles from general warehouse positions.

AUTOMATION AND TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
Track number of logistics facilities operating with automation systems, robotics, or advanced warehouse management technology. Monitor EV charging infrastructure deployment and fleet transition milestones for logistics operators.

COLD CHAIN CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT
Measure cold storage facility square footage, number of cold chain operators, and employment and wage levels in temperature-controlled logistics. Track share of local agricultural output processed through cold chain facilities in Shafter versus shipped elsewhere for processing.

WORKFORCE PIPELINE
Track enrollment and completion in logistics technology training programs at Bakersfield College and high school CTE programs. Monitor employer hiring from local training pipelines versus external recruitment. Track apprenticeship program participation rates and completion.

Goal 2: From Field to Future

AGRICULTURAL VALUE CAPTURE
Track food processing employment, wages, and output relative to primary agricultural production in the region. Measure growth in processing, packaging, and cold storage square footage. Monitor the share of Central Valley agricultural output processed locally versus shipped out for processing elsewhere.

SMALL PRODUCER AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACTIVITY
Monitor utilization of shared processing infrastructure, number of small food producers accessing certified facilities, business development program participation, and firms graduating from shared to standalone facilities.

AGTECH ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Track number of ag-tech pilot partnerships established, research institutions engaged, and startups co-located in or operating from Shafter. Monitor deployment of precision agriculture technologies among local operators.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 41
Goal 3: Make It Here

MANUFACTURING CLUSTER GROWTH
Track new advanced manufacturing firm recruitment, expansion of existing manufacturers, and employment and wage growth in the cluster. Monitor supply chain leakage reduction as local supplier firms are recruited and developed.

AEROSPACE AND AVIATION DEVELOPMENT
Measure new tenants and employment at Minter Field Airport, specifically in aviation technology, MRO, and drone operations. Track UAS pilot programs established, research partnerships activated, and FAA regulatory milestones relevant to commercial operations.

RESHORING AND SITE READINESS
Track permitting timeline performance for advanced manufacturing uses. Monitor number of shovelready industrial sites available and their time-to-occupancy for new operators.

MANUFACTURING WORKFORCE PIPELINE
Measure enrollment and completion in precision manufacturing, mechatronics, and aerospace workforce programs. Track employer-sourced apprenticeship participation and placement rates.

Goal 4: Power the Whole Economy

ENERGY COST AND RELIABILITY
Track energy costs per unit of output for major industrial users, microgrid deployments and capacity, distributed generation adoption rates, and wholesale procurement participation. Monitor reliability metrics including outage frequency and duration for businesses participating in distributed generation programs.

ENERGY MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES
Measure energy-adjacent manufacturing employment, wages, and capital investment. Track number of energy equipment manufacturers, field service operators, and storage system integrators operating from Shafter. Monitor diversification across energy technologies to assess policy vulnerability.

HYDROGEN AND LONG-TERM POSITIONING
Track progress against hydrogen pilot milestones—demand assessments completed, partnerships formalized, funding applications submitted. Monitor state funding developments and Shafter's readiness to respond when deployment pathways become viable. Track municipal power feasibility study completion, governance capacity assessment, and decision milestones for new growth area energy strategy.

42 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
Goal 5: Corridors That Tell Our Story

INFRASTRUCTURE SEQUENCING
Track completion of Corridor Infrastructure Strategy, sewer and utility extension milestones, and grade separation and arterial improvement project timelines. Monitor alignment of infrastructure investments with catalytic node designations.

CATALYTIC NODE DEVELOPMENT
Measure private investment activity at designated nodes—new commercial development, renovation permits, and active businesses. Track foot traffic and consumer spending at node locations. Monitor progress on public realm improvements at designated anchor intersections.

CORRIDOR LAND USE AND IDENTITY
Track adoption and compliance with corridor design standards. Monitor residential and commercial development approvals for consistency with corridor land use strategy. Measure Corridor Identity and Design Standards completion and early implementation milestones.

DOWNTOWN ACTIVATION
Track downtown business occupancy rates, new business formations, and permit activity. Monitor downtown foot traffic and event programming frequency. Assess small business program utilization and downtown-focused resource connections.

Goal 6: Built to Execute

PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITY AND REGIONAL POSITIONING
Track formalized partnership agreements, joint initiatives executed with regional partners, business leads generated through Kern EDC and B3K Prosperity collaboration, and Shafter's participation rate in regional implementation teams and workforce programs.

MARKETING AND BUSINESS ATTRACTION READINESS
Measure completion and deployment of sector-specific marketing materials, community profile, and site inventory. Track website engagement, site selector inquiries, and business attraction conversations generated through marketing efforts. Monitor annual report production and distribution.

SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Track new business formations, permitting and licensing timelines, small business retention and expansion program participation, and local business activation at designated corridor nodes. Monitor connections made to regional business development resources.

INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND IMPLEMENTATION READINESS
Track economic development staffing levels against plan implementation requirements. Monitor sector partnership meeting frequency, participation rates, and action item completion. Assess management system adoption and utilization. Conduct annual capacity review to identify emerging gaps as strategy execution matures.

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 43
Reporting and Review Process
The City of Shafter commits to an annual CEDS review process including: (1) annual progress report produced by the Economic Development Director and presented to City Council, documenting implementation status for all six goals; (2) annual CEDS Committee review of progress metrics, emerging conditions, and implementation priorities for the coming year; (3) stakeholder engagement at major review milestones to assess community alignment with strategic direction; and (4) a full CEDS update no less than every five years, or upon significant changes in regional economic conditions that materially affect the strategy's relevance.

44 City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026
SECTION 5: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CEDS Committee
Kamal Siada, Economic Development Director, City of Shafter Giovanni Perez, Senior Strategy and Investment Specialist, City of Shafter Michael James, Assistant City Manager, City of Shafter
Alex Gonzalez, Public Works Director, City of Shafter
Gustavo Olvera, Mayor Pro-Tem, City of Shafter
John Guinn, Executive Vice President, Wonderful Real Estate Development Richard Chapman, President & CEO, Kern Economic Development Corporation Melinda Brown, VP of Business Development, Kern Economic Development Corporation Georgia Petropoulos, President & CEO, B3K Prosperity
Paul Fahey, Chief Operating Officer, JD Rush
Valarie Labrentz, Assistant Principal of Instruction, Shafter High School Zach McNinch, Principal, Shafter High School
Jeff Martin, Co-Owner, American Refuse
Project Champion
Kamal Siada, Economic Development Director
Project Management and Core Team
Giovanni Perez, Senior Strategy and Investment Specialist (Project Manager) Alicia Ramirez, Senior Economic Development Specialist
Vanessa Uribe, Executive Assistant, City Manager
Isarel Perez-Hernandez, Deputy Finance Director
Alan Cazares, Senior Planner

City of Shafter CEDS | Spring 2026 45

Complementary Tool for Economic Development
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (“CEDS”)
City of Shafter
Prepared for Shafter, CA City Council
Shafter Economic Development & Civic Solutions Partnership LLC May 5, 2026

CEDS as a Funding Enabler
2 | Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
CEDS = Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
For Shafter
A separate but aligned deliverable that expands funding pathways and supports EDSP implementation.

Federal
Alignment
Translates local
priorities into a
federally recognized
economic
development
framework.

Funding Beyond
Local Sources
Helps position
Shafter to pursue
funding beyond the
General Fund,
enterprise funds,
CIP, or other City
funds.

Shafter-Specific
Focus
Centers City’s priorities
and projects rather
than relying on broad
county-level strategies.

Proven Value
Builds on the 2021
CEDS, which
supported road
improvements and
enabled an alternate
platform for future
projects.

EDA Framework, Council Action, and Next Steps
3 | Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
EDA Required Framework Background, SWOT, strategic direction & action plan, and evaluation framework Economic resilience is embedded throughout
Council Action Tonight Adopt Resolution accepting Shafter’s CEDS Authorize submission to the U.S. EDA for review
Next Steps Submit the CEDS package to EDA for review
Respond to any comments or requested revisions
Use and update the CEDS as implementation advances

MANAGEMENT REPORT

CITY OF SHAFTER

CITY COUNCIL REPORT
MEETING DATE: May 5, 2026
DEPARTMENT: Lance Lippincott, City Manager
SUBJECT: LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION (LAFCO)

APPOINTMENT

RECOMMENDATION
Council find the action is not defined as a “project” per Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines; and appoint one Council Member to serve as the City's representative on the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO); and appoint one alternate representative.

BACKGROUND
The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) is a state-mandated agency responsible for coordinating orderly growth and development within the county. LAFCO oversees boundary changes, annexations, incorporations, and special district formations to promote efficient service delivery and discourage urban sprawl.

Each city within the county may be represented on LAFCO, either as a regular member or through a rotational/shared representation structure, depending on the county’s LAFCO composition. Representatives typically serve fixed terms and are expected to attend regular meetings and participate in regional governance decisions.

The City of McFarland's term will be expiring this year. Next in line is the City of Shafter, necessitating a new appointment.

FISCAL IMPACT
There is minimal to no direct fiscal impact associated with this appointment.

CEQA ANALYSIS
The action is not defined as a “project” per Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines because the action is the appointment of an individual to LAFCO and therefore, it is organizational and administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment and not subject to CEQA.

APPROVED BY THE CITY ATTORNEY
No

ATTACHMENTS

LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION (LAFCO) APPOINTMENT
- 2 -
None

MANAGEMENT REPORT

CITY OF SHAFTER

CITY COUNCIL REPORT
MEETING DATE: May 5, 2026
DEPARTMENT: Lance Lippincott, City Manager
SUBJECT: REMOTE ACCESS NETWORK BOARD (RAN) APPOINTMENT

RECOMMENDATION
Council find the action is not defined as a “project” per Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines; and appoint one Council Member to the Remote Access Network Board.

BACKGROUND
The board manages funds related to technology and, specifically, the Cal-ID/RAN system, which provides law enforcement with remote access to identification networks.

The board includes representation from various local agencies, including city selections, such as the City of Ridgecrest, with terms often extending to June 2026. Appointing a representative ensures continuity in regional coordination and provides the City with a voice in matters that may impact local programs, funding opportunities, and policy development.

FISCAL IMPACT
There is no direct fiscal impact associated with this appointment.

CEQA ANALYSIS
The action is not defined as a “project” per Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines because the action is the appointment of an individual to RAN and therefore, it is organizational and administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment and not subject to CEQA.

APPROVED BY THE CITY ATTORNEY
No

ATTACHMENTS
None

MANAGEMENT REPORT

CITY OF SHAFTER

CITY COUNCIL REPORT
MEETING DATE: May 5, 2026
DEPARTMENT: David Franz, Community Services Director
SUBJECT: 3RD OF JULY SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT AND IN-KIND/DIRECT

SPONSORSHIP FOR SHAFTER LIONS FIREWORKS SHOW

RECOMMENDATION
Council find the action is not defined as a “project” pursuant to Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines; approve a Special Event Permit for the Shafter Lions Fireworks Show to be held at Sequoia Elementary School; approve in-kind contributions from City of Shafter in the amount of $8,847 (Shafter Police Department), and $5,500 (Shafter Public Works); and approve a sponsorship in the amount of $35,000 to support the event.

BACKGROUND
The City has received an application for a Special Event Permit for the Shafter Lions Fireworks Show, proposed to take place at Sequoia Elementary School on July 3, 2026.

The event is anticipated to attract approximately 1,000 attendees and requires City Council approval due to the size of the gathering and the closure of public roads.

The event will consist of a community fireworks display. No vendors are proposed as part of the event. While the launch site for the fireworks is outside of the City limits, the event itself still has an impact within the City due to the volume of attendees and related activity.

As part of the event operations, traffic control measures will be implemented to ensure public safety. Road closures are proposed on Mannel Avenue between Fresno Avenue and Madera Avenue, and on Beech Avenue between Fresno Avenue and Madera Avenue. Access to the area will be managed through designated entry points, with parking and circulation controlled by flaggers. Advance warning signage and no-parking zones will be established along Fresno Avenue and surrounding areas.

City departments, including Police and Public Works, will coordinate with the event organizer to ensure appropriate safety measures, traffic control, and emergency access are maintained throughout the event. The Police Department estimates in-kind costs for staffing, vehicles, and fuel for the event at $8,847. Public Works costs are estimated to be $5,500.

FISCAL IMPACT

3RD OF JULY SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT AND IN-KIND/DIRECT SPONSORSHIP FOR SHAFTER

LIONS FIREWORKS SHOW
- 2 -
The applicant is requesting a City sponsorship in the amount of $35,000 from the General Fund to support the event in addition to in-kind contributions of City staff time and equipment.

CEQA ANALYSIS
The action is not defined as a “project” per Section 15378(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines because the action is the approval of a special events permit and therefore, it is organizational and administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment and not subject to CEQA.

APPROVED BY THE CITY ATTORNEY

ATTACHMENTS

1. July 3 2026 site plan

2. Special Event Permit - 59 (2)

Special Event Permit
Approval Summary
Administrative Approval: Approved
Planning Approval: Approved with Conditions
Public Works Approval: Approved with Conditions
Police Department Approval: Approved
Risk Management Approval: Approved
Planning Cost Estimate: $0.00
Public Works Cost Estimate:$5,500.00
Police Department Cost Estimate: $8,847.00
Council Approval
Ready for Council Approval
Total Cost Estimate
$14,347.00
Thank you for choosing to host an event in the City of Shafter! Before you start, let’s make sure you need this permit. If your event will have fewer than 50 attendees, does not involve the sale of food and/or beverages, and will not require alterations to roads or public rightof-ways, you don’t need a Special Events Permit. Have a great event! However, if you expect more than 50 people, will sell food and/or beverages, have amplified sound, or alter roads or public right-of-ways, please fill out this form. This helps us coordinate resources, ensure public safety, and ensures you comply with the Shafter Municipal Code. We have tried to make it as painless as possible, and we are here to help! If you have any questions contact the Community Services Department at (661) 746-5019.

Here’s what you need to know:
 You will need to submit your completed application at least 30 days before the event*.  If you are planning a Community Event, submit your application at least 60 days before the event*.

A Community Event is an event with 1 or more food vendors that is of civic, political, public, or educational nature such as fairs, festivals, circuses and other public gathering events. *This allows you time to obtain all required permits and insurance, gives City staff time to review and approve your application, and, when necessary, provides enough time for City Council to review and approve the permit.
 An application fee of $25 is due after submittal and is non-refundable. (Other fees may apply.) A City staff member will contact you for payment.
 Events with more than 300 people at a time, that require alterations to the roads of public right-ofways, or will be serving alcohol require City Council approval.

Thank you again for hosting your event in Shafter—we can’t wait to see it come to life! Special Event Permit
Step 1 - Contact Information
Host Organization
(Host Organization is the organization accepting all financial responsibility for the event and providing the required insurance.)
Shafter Lions Foundation
Untitled
Check here if the Host Organization is a non-profit.

Host Organization Website
https://shafterlionsclub.com
Event Contact(s)
Untitled
Event Contact 1
Name
Gustavo Olvera
Phone
(661) 910-4999
Email
[email protected]
Step 2 - Event Information
Event Details
Event Name
Shafter Lions Fireworks Show
Event Description
Shafter Lions Fireworks Show
Untitled
Check here if your event requires an alteration to any street or public right-of-way.

Alterations to roads or public right of ways require Council review and approval.

Event Location
Sequoia Elementary School
Selecting an event location for this permit is not considered a facility reservation. To complete a park reservation, visit the City of Shafter Parks Reservation webpage.

Maximum Number of People Anticipated at a Time

1,000
Event Activities (Check all that apply)
Amplified Music/Speech
If your event has multiple dates, enter each individual date the event will be held.

Event Set-Up Date
7/3/2026
Event Set-Up Time (Start and End time)
4:00pm
Event Date
7/3/2026
Event Time (Start and End Time)
10:00pm
Multiple Event Dates Indicator
Event Tear-Down Date
7/3/2026
Event Tear-Down Time (Start and End Time)
9:30pm
Alterations of Public Streets and/or Right-of-Ways
(Encroachment)
Encroachment Details
Describe your requested alteration of public streets and/or right of ways. (For example, “closing the parking lot at the Green Hotel for a farmers market”):

Road Closures if Beech, Madera, and Mannel.

Alteration Start Date
7/3/2026
Alteration Start Time
5:00pm
Alteration End Date
4/3/2026
Alteration End Time
10:00pm
Please submit a map or drawing of the alteration/encroachment and include exact dimensions.

For travel routes, include starting and ending points of the route, any proposed boundaries, and specific places for signs, cones, or barricades. Include staging areas where events will be set up.

Map/Drawing of Alteration/Encroachment Location
July 3 2026 site plan.png
Materials and Services
Check all items requested from the City.

Barricades
Cones
Portable Lighting
Traffic Control Signs
Traffic Delineators

Declaration

1. Applicant is responsible for any damage to the items noted above and is responsible for the cost of repairs and/or replacement of such at the City's discretion.

2. Unless otherwise stated through an approved request, please note the following:
a. Items are not available during normal business hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.
b. The City will provide the items requested subject to availability. c. All equipment must be set up, maintained, and removed by City employees exclusively.

3. The City of Shafter is in no way responsible for any personal injuries, property damage, or other liabilities that may incur during the use of said items.

4. The use of these items may also require City permits for Special Events and/or Encroachment in public right-of-way.

Indemnification

1. Applicant agrees that if this application is granted, applicant shall indemnify, defend, save and hold harmless the City of Shafter (“City”), and each of City’s officials, officers, employees, city council members, agents, board members, commissioners, contractors, and authorized volunteers (collectively “City Agents”) against and from any and all suits, actions, damages, judgments, claims, demands, expenses (including actual out-of-pocket legal fees), losses, penalties, fines, liabilities, debts, costs and expenditures, including but not limited to, sums paid on liability judgements, and against any and all loss or liability which the City of Shafter or such City Agents may suffer, or which may be recoverable from, or obtainable against the City of Shafter or such City Agents, from loss, damage, or injury to persons or property in any manner proximately caused by, arising out of, allegedly arising out of, incident to, or connected to any acts, omissions, or misconduct in connection with this permit including but not limited to the use of any City streets, land, buildings, facilities, or as applicable, the placing, erection, maintenance or existence of encroachment.

Initial
GO

2. Applicant further agrees that upon the expiration of the permit for which this application is made, if granted, or upon the revocation thereof by the City, applicant will at his own cost and expense remove the same from the public property or right-of-way where the same is located, and restore said public property or right-of-way to the condition as nearly may be in which it was before the placing, erection, maintenance, or existence of said encroachment.

Initial
Go

3. Applicant shall submit a traffic control plan for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic for all work in the public right-of-way. The plan and its controls shall follow the latest edition of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Initial
GO

4. California Government Code Section 4216 requires an INQUIRY IDENTIFICATION NUMBER be assigned to every person planning to conduct an excavation in a Public Right-of-Way or Private Easement. If applicable, the applicant shall call the “USA” Regional Notification Center at 1-800- 227-2600 a minimum of two (2) days prior to commencing that excavation. Pursuant to Title 12 of the Shafter Municipal Code, the undersigned herby applies for a permit to place, erect, and/or maintain an encroachment on public property right-of-way as therein defined.

Initial
GO

5. In the event that a homeowner intends to replace broken sidewalk within the public right-of-way in front of their residence, and/or install infill sidewalk that is not part of a development or planned improvements by the City, a no-fee encroachment permit may be approved and granted. Please coordinate with Staff to determine if a no-fee permit would be applicable for a portion of or the entire scope of any proposed improvements. Applicant must follow the City of Shafter’s Subdivision Engineering & Design Manual. If the applicant fails to meet the requirements or excessive reinspections are performed, the applicant will be charged a retro-active permit fee and re-inspection fees incurred.

Initial
GO

6. The following shall be in addition to the above indemnification and below acknowledgement for Furnished Goods: City of Shafter, its employees, city council members, agents, boards and commissions make NO WARRANTY of any kind, nature or description, express or implied, as to the quality and manufacture, safety or fitness for any particular purpose of any Equipment covered by this agreement.

Initial
GO
Step 3 - Hold Harmless Agreement
I certify and agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the City of Shafter, its employees, city council members, agents, boards and commissions from and against any and all claims, liability loss, costs, damages, fees of attorneys, and other expenses which the City may sustain or incur by reason of, or in consequence of, the use of City streets and land, including but not limited to, sums paid on liability settlements or judgements in relation to use of land and streets.

Furthermore, I certify that I am the applicant or authorized agent and that the information filed is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I understand that additional conditions of approval may be imposed under this application, and I agree to comply with any conditions that may be required.

Applicant Signature Date
4/30/2026

Step 4 - Insurance Requirements
a. A Commercial General Liability Certificate of Insurance (“COI”) with coverage as broad as Insurance Services Office form CG 00 01 must be submitted and must name the person and/or organization hosting the event as the "Insured."
b. The COI must clearly show the liability limits and policy number and policy dates to be valid, shall be and include that the policy primary and non-contributory. Applicant agrees to waive all rights of subrogation.
c. The COI alone is not an acceptable proof of coverage and must be accompanied by a separate Endorsement page. The Endorsement page must name "The City of Shafter, its Officers, Employees, City Council Members, Agents, Boards, and Commissions, and volunteers" as additional insured. d. If automobiles will be used in the performance under the permit, applicant shall provide business automobile liability coverage for owned, non-owned, and hired autos using ISO Business Automobile Coverage form CA 00 01 (or equivalent) with a limit of not less than $1,000,000 each accident. The policy shall be endorsed naming the City as additional insureds. The policy shall provide and be endorsed to include a waiver of subrogation in favor of the City.
e. If applicant employs staff, statutory worker’s compensation and employer’s liability insurance in the minimum amount of $1,000,000 each accident or disease is required.  Minimum commercial general liability insurance coverage required is $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 general aggregate.*
 If alcohol is present or sold, a host liquor liability in the amount of $2,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 general aggregate must be produced. *Amount of coverage required is dependent on level of risk and varies by type of event. Coverage limits may be higher for higher risk activities and events upon the City's sole determination. Special Events are reviewed individually; City staff will inform the applicant of the required insurance limits after the form is reviewed.

Insurance certificates and endorsement(s) may be obtained by contacting homeowner/auto insurance companies and asking for event insurance or visiting online event insurance companies such as those listed below.
 Hub International: Event Insure | HUB International
 K&K Insurance: Special Event Insurance
 City staff may assist with obtaining insurance through Alliant. See City staff for assistance.

Attach Insurance Coverage Documents
IMG_2107.png
25-26 GL Additional Insured Endorsement - Premises - Shafter.pdf

25.26 Certificate for Shafter CA LIons Club - All Lions Club Events (1).pdf Friendly Reminders

1. All City noise regulations must be observed.

2. Parking must be in authorized parking spaces only.

3. Carefully observe Hours of Event, as stated on permit.

4. If indicated, comply with any additional conditions that may have been imposed as Conditions of Approval following review of your application for a Special Event Permit.

City Use Only
Administrative Review
Administrative Approval
Approved
Conditions of Approval
Item 1
Condition(s)
Submit an updated COI before 7/3/2026
Administrative Representative Name
Mila Aleman
Administrative Representative Title
Admin Assistant
Signature Date
4/28/2026
Planning Review
Planning Approval
Approved with Conditions
As part of the approval process for a Special Event Permit application, conditions may be imposed that are deemed necessary to ensure that the permit will be applied in accordance with the criteria outlined in the City Zoning Ordinance. These conditions may involve any factors affecting the operation of the temporary use or event. Conditions of Approval include the following items.

Conditions of Approval

Item 1
Condition(s)
Greater than 300 people at any given time and therefore, requires City Council approval.

Cost Estimate
$0.00
Planning Representative Name
Steve Esselman
Planning Representative Title
Planning Director
Signature Date
4/28/2026
Public Works Review
Public Works Approval
Approved with Conditions
As part of the approval process for a Special Event Permit application, conditions may be imposed that are deemed necessary to ensure that the permit will be applied in accordance with the criteria outlined in the City Zoning Ordinance. These conditions may involve any factors affecting the operation of the temporary use or event. Conditions of Approval include the following items.

Conditions of Approval
Item 1
Condition(s)
Traffic Control to be provided upon approval of City Council Cost Estimate
$5,500.00
Public Works Representative Name
Alex Gonzalez
Public Works Representative Title
Public Works Director
Signature Date
4/30/2026

Engineering Review
Engineering Approval
Approved with Conditions
As part of the approval process for a Special Event Permit application, conditions may be imposed that are deemed necessary to ensure that the permit will be applied in accordance with the criteria outlined in the City Zoning Ordinance. These conditions may involve any factors affecting the operation of the temporary use or event. Conditions of Approval include the following items.

Conditions of Approval
Item 1
Condition(s)
Need to implement a traffic control plan approved by the City Engineer prior to the event.

Cost Estimate
$0.00
Engineering Representative Name
Ravi Pudipeddi
Engineering Representative Title
City Engineer
Signature Date
5/1/2026
Police Department Review
Police Department Approval
Approved
Cost Estimate
$8,847.00

Police Department Representative Name
Brian Knox
Police Department Representative Title
Assistant Chief of Police
Signature Date
5/1/2026
Risk Management Review
Risk Management Approval
Approved
Condition(s) of Approval
Risk Management Representative Name
Angelica Torres
Risk Management Representative Title
Risk Management Coordinator
Signature Date
5/1/2026
City Council Review
City Council Approval
Council Member Name Council Member Title
Signature Date