Shafter is hoping to find a new route for the California High-Speed Rail Authority to build the project through the city.

On Monday, the Shafter City Council unanimously rejected a change to High-Speed Rail’s 2018 plan and asked for a new route altogether.

The backstory: Seven years ago, Shafter reached a settlement with the authority following a lawsuit that alleged the authority did not do enough to mitigate environmental impacts in the proposed route through the city. • As part of the settlement, the settlement agreed to lay the track on a retained fill, putting 35-feet-tall walls up to make the track above grade through the city. Residents would have cross-town access preserved with the settlement. • But the authority recently told the city that the 2018 settlement was expensive

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