Hi there,
I have experience in LeafletJS and other GIS related framework, please see [login to view URL] as reference for my past project, i also use codeigniter on this project
You are correct, best method to faster load is by storing geocode inside DB in format of geojson, this way loading geojson to map wil be faster than loading shp file directly, the only thing i concern is what format is the python script generate
Please drop me a message, i need to know how the current app working
Looking forward to work with you