SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Springfield City Council continues to mull new regulations on the practice of body suspension in public. The council held a public hearing on a proposed ordinance at its last meeting but councilmembers Cindy Rushefsky and John Rush said Tuesday that they want the ordinance to be even stricter.
Body suspension happens when people are lifted off the ground and hang only by their piercings. It caused controversy in a neighborhood last year when neighbors complained about it happening within their view in a backyard.
The proposed ordinance would require a permit from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department for body suspensions in residential areas. To get a permit, the applicant would have to get approval from all of the adjoining property owners and half of "property owners that are not adjoined and within 185 feet of property where said activity shall be performed."
The petition with the nearby property owners' approvals wouild have to "give detailed description of the activity/procedure to be performed and shall be on each page of the petition being signed." If an applicant couldn't get all the necessary signatures on the petition, he could ask the City Council to approve it anyway, possibly leaving some leeway for situations where no one else could see into the property in question.
