City officials and developers keep an eye on the Capital Development Fund.

The answer: In limbo.

The question: Where is the more than $8 million in the Evansville Capital Development Fund that 17 different groups submitted proposals for last fall?

"The process that was set up to allocate the money to the Capital Development Fund, basically the guidelines were not strict, there wasn't enough direction," Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel said during a March interview. "It was basically here's this money, tell us how much you want and how you want to spend it — without any real coordination."

The Capital Development Fund is the result of early lease payments Casino Aztar agreed to pay the city in order to help subsidize Downtown improvements. Last year, a committee was formed to hear proposals from groups applying for those funds, resulting in two days of public hearings last fall.

But the former mayor, who appointed the committee that evaluated the applications, disagrees the procedures for qualifying and getting the money were too loose.

"There were guidelines at the very beginning of the process that the committee used," Russ Lloyd Jr., said. Lloyd was a one-term Republican mayor, who was defeated by Weinzapfel, a Democrat, last November.

The criteria, according to Lloyd, included funding a maximum of 50 percent of the cost of a project, the creation of jobs and tourism, increasing economic development and property tax revenues and preferably locating the developments in the city's struggling downtown.

And Evansville may lose out on an $18 million downtown housing project if the wait goes on much longer.

"We have a chance to offer a European lifestyle or a big city lifestyle where you can walk to work, enjoy restaurants and nightclubs. But we need to get going," said developer Ed Curtis, whose Curtis Square Project was among the recommendations of the Capital Development Committee. "At some point if this goes on too long, I'll lose interest. I'd say we have to do something by this summer basically.

"I've got to say I don't blame (Weinzapfel)," Curtis said. "I think he's in favor of Downtown. He wants to be cautious, develop it properly and spend the money properly. But the momentum we lost is significant. And now we're just on delay. So now we're just sitting and waiting."

When asked if he was surprised or disappointed when he learned the project was on hold, Curtis said, "Very disappointed."

"It's a perfect example of why public and private have to work together for the betterment of the city," Curtis said. "And if there's not cooperation, you sit here and idle and nothing happens. We need to just bend over backwards to get development Downtown. People who are willing to take a risk, you better hold their hand."

Curtis' proposal calls for development in three stages, to be completed over a three to five year period, creating 700 jobs, with estimated labor costs of $6.6 million.

The first phase would be six townhouses and 66 apartments, to be built over a two-block area bordered by Second, Third, Vine and Sycamore streets, adjacent to properties that Curtis currently owns.

Curtis said he would like to pattern the Evansville project after Seaside, Fla., a planned community about 40 miles west of Panama City, in the state's panhandle.

"That's my favorite place in the country," Curtis said. "(Seaside) is a perfect example of New Urbanism."

Since the 1990s, New Urbanism has been increasingly embraced as a more livable approach to urban living. The concept combines different types of housing within walking distance of commercial areas. The concept was one envisioned by the authors of the 2001 Master Plan, which specifically targeted an improved Downtown housing market as key to the plan's – and the city's – overall success in redeveloping Downtown.

Ken Robinson, executive director of Vision 2000, an economic development organization that specializes in helping businesses from outside Southwestern Indiana locate in the region, agreed with Curtis that public and private entities must join forces.

"A developer has to feel he is truly appreciated and wanted because there is a lot of competition for those dollars," Robinson said. "If you don't give them the tools, they'll go somewhere else and get it..."