Texas Adopts Practice Act

AUSTIN, Texas - The new Texas Practice Act goes into effect on Sept. 1, and will clarify the profession as one that deals with manipulation of land and landscapes for functional and environmental effect, rather than being a primarily aesthetic service. 

The act also clearly states that LAs are competent, by education, examination and experience, to perform those tasks that overlap with civil engineering, such as grading, drainage design, site planning and landscape design.

"We began to lay the groundwork [for the act] in 1998 by forming a separate association whose primary purpose was to advance the legislative agenda for landscape architects ... the Texas Association of Landscape Architects (TALA)," said Diane Steinbrueck, past board member of TALA and incoming landscape architect member of the TBAE. "Our first success was in being added to the State of Texas' Professional Services Procurement Act in the 1999 Legislative Session. This means that for state-funded work, landscape architects are professionals [that must be] selected on the basis of qualifications and not by bid, [putting] us on an equal footing with engineers and architects."

A group of Landscape Architects then began the process of re-writing the definitions and exemptions portions of the previous statute, crafting an up-to-date definition that focused on issues of public health, safety and welfare. 

"During this past session, we entered the bill for the practice act and proceeded to work with numerous groups to reach an agreement for no contest," said Steinbrueck. "The groups [we] contacted and worked with included architects, engineers, irrigators, apartment associations, wildlife biologists, landscape contractors, bicycle coalitions, landscape designers and restorationists. We found that the opposition was fairly light during the early stages of the session and became more difficult as we got closer to final approval." 

Ultimately TALA were succesful, and the governor signed the bill on June 15.

In 2003, the TBAE will undergo Sunset Review. "We anticipate being very involved in this process to protect our status and to help the Board find ways to be more responsive to landscape architects and our impact on the public," said Steinbrueck. "We feel that our practice act will allow the public more options for selecting qualified professionals as we continue to impact our limited land and water resources. The focus and perception of our profession may more easily shift from being one of planting design to being more closely identified as being sensitive site and environmental designers."

Other individuals involved in the legislative process included:

• Dean McWilliams, legislative

consultant

• Cleve Turner, outgoing landscape

architect member of the TBAE and

board member of TALA

• Diane Steinbrueck, past board member

of TALA and incoming landscape

architect member of the TBAE

• Pete Hinton, board member of TALA