Budget Tightening Commonly Targets State L.A. Boards

The map reveals the 47 states with practice acts governing the practice of landscape architecture, and the three states with the less robust title act in force. The District of Columbia, oddly, has no law governing the profession. States with budget shortfalls tend to target licensing boards for extermination, even though these boards have very modest budgets. Bills to axe landscape architect boards in California, Florida and New Hampshire have been defeated. The same initiative is now proposed in Virginia.

A milestone was reached in April 2010 after Vermont became to the 50th state to enact licensure requirements for landscape architects.

This legislative achievement was celebrated by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) as the culmination of the association’s 50 by 2010 campaign – a program created in 2000 to enact practice acts for the states.

Now that the 50-state goal was achieved, the ASLA and its state chapters are working to maintain the status quo as some states are looking to deregulate landscape architect licensing.

Some state governments facing budget shortfalls are looking at deregulation as a way to save money. In Virginia, Rep. Gov. Bob McDonnell formed a commission on government and restructuring to seek ways to save money. Among the remedies to the state’s budget shortfall, deregulation has been put on the table.

“The deregulation of landscape architects will have catastrophic consequences for all landscape architects and designers seeking licensure; public health, safety and welfare will be compromised; and the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech landscape architecture programs will be negatively impacted,” reads a statement issued by the Virginia ASLA chapter.

According to the ASLA, Virginia chapter officials met with the governor’s staff on November 21 and were informed later that week that Governor McDonnell has chosen not to accept the recommendation of the commission to deregulate landscape architecture. The ASLA notes that there is no guarantee that the Virginia General Assembly will follow suit and that deregulation may still be on the table.

New Hampshire and Florida recent saw similar efforts, but the ASLA chapters in those states were successfully able to lobby against deregulation as the bills in each state were defeated.

Tom Bohn, executive director of the Florida ASLA chapter, said although the deregulation bill was defeated in his state, the chapter continues to work toward maintaining licensure.

“For us, it’s all about a continual effort to keep legislators and other stakeholders aware of the critical role that licensed architects play in our state,” he said. “Instead of ‘waiting’ for the issue to come back up, our efforts continue to be on on-going education and advocacy.”

Julia Lent, ASLA government affairs director, urged chapters in all 50 states to remain focused on this issue.

“Given the tight budget outlook, it is likely that more states will look to deregulation as a way to cut costs, despite the fact that most regulation is paid for by the licensees themselves through license fees,” she said. “The resources developed during the 50 by 2010 licensure campaign continue to serve the profession well to make the case that landscape architecture impact’s the public health, safety, and welfare.”