Fla. Legislature Proposes Deregulating Landscape Architecture . . . and 25 Other Professions

ASLA President Jonathan Mueller, FASLA called HB 5005 ''not just a threat to Florida landscape architects, but to the entire profession.''

It's been a long haul, and taken years of lobbying and efforts on behalf of landscape architecture advocates, but there are licensure requirements in place in all 50 states for the profession of landscape architecture. Forty-seven states have the strongest regulation (Practice Acts), and three states have less rigorous regulation (Title Acts: Illinois, Maine and Massachusetts). Note: There is no regulation in D.C.!

Periodically, a legislator or governor of a state will propose unregulating certain professions, dismantling a professional licensure board, etc. Such proposals keep falling by the wayside, once profession groups and citizens weigh in that they indeed want to hold professionals to the highest standards (licensure) and be assured of their competence.

Well, it's Florida's turn. This comes as no surprise to readers of journal/novelist Carl Hiaasen. He has called the Sunshine State ''a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial calling like demented trout. And you'd be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office.'' He has called the current governor, Rick Scott, ''an ideological extremist who doesn't like any form of government snooping.''

On March 15, 2011, the Business & Consumer Affairs Subcommittee of the Florida House of Reps. voted 10-5 in favor of the deregulation bill.

The Florida ASLA Chapter, with guidance from ASLA, has put together talking points and listed the phone numbers/emails of the members of the Fla. House of Rep. State Affairs Committee to contact on its website www.flasla.org/. The chapter reports many members across the state have contacted their legislators, and estimates as many as 3,000 legislative contacts made regarding the deregulation bill.