A controversial plan to rezone a 40-acre cornfield on West South Street was again tabled by the City Council Monday.

The owner of the tract in the 700 block of West South Street petitioned for rezoning the land from R-1, the city’s most-restrictive residential category, to B-3, the least-restrictive business category.

Originally, the owner planned to build a large temperature-controlled storage building for RVs and campers, and a nine-acre array of solar panels to provide electricity for the building’s heating and cooling systems.

The property is adjacent to the west of Midland Drive, and residents of that area objected to the rezoning, maintaining that it would impact the value of their properties and could create drainage problems for them.

The council tabled the rezoning a month ago. At the time, Mayor Gary Moore said he and Councilman Chris Colomer had discussed the matter and had come up with an idea that might make the development more acceptable to the neighbors and increase the revenue the development would generate for the city.

On Monday, two representatives of the developers, Ben Leroy and Tony Grilio, said a new project has been added to the development: a four-space retail area in the southwest corner of the property. They said this would be across from OSF Saint Luke Medical Center, and would be convenient for anyone at the hospital who might want to dine or shop at a business in the area.

Council members had questions about the new plans for the property.

“I want to know everything about this,” Colomer said. “It’s not adding up to me.”

In particular, Colomer wanted to know about the size of the solar array.

Grilio said the solar panels would generate 7.6 megawatts of power, and Colomer said he had researched and found that a Wal-Mart store only uses about one megawatt. He questioned why such a large solar facility is needed.

Grilio said the solar array will only produce its peak power on hot, sunny summer days. The output will be considerably less at other times, he said.

Mayor Gary Moore suggested that the council table the rezoning until the developers could provide a detailed business model for the entire project. Grilio said that it should be available in a month to six weeks.

He said if the rezoning isn’t approved, the owner will continue using the property as farmland.