When Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness wrapped-up a media briefing on the 2023 city budget proposal, he laid-out a reminder of what is coming in economic development – $1 billion in development.

The city has announced a new Andretti Motorsports headquarters in the southeast section of the airport, near Ritchey Woods.  That amounts to a $200 million investment in Fishers.

So, what about the remaining $800 million in developments coming?  Fadness teased that those economic development projects will all be brought before the City Council at the next regular session September 19.  The mayor brought this up because Fadness’ 2023 budget plan will be presented to the full Council at that regular meeting, but Fadness says the spending plan will likely be overshadowed by the big economic development agreements.

When something like this comes up, my mind harkens back to May of 1991, when I first moved to Fishers.  The 1990 census counted about 7,500 people residing in the Town of Fishers.  It was a much different place.

Many complain that they miss the Fishers of yesteryear.  Many years ago, I asked Mayor Fadness about those arguments.  He was clear about one thing – his view is that a city is either going forward or backward – staying in place is not an option because that translates into going backward.

There is no question Fishers has the foot on the floorboard with the accelerator at top speed.  If Scott Fadness chooses to run for another term as mayor and wins, I would suspect that accelerator will remain at high speed forward.

But as someone living in Fishers since 1991, it is hard to get my head around a number like $1 billion of investment in this community.  We should have more details in the coming weeks.