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Licensing Landscape Architects

Tuesday, March 20 at 4:05 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Craig Coronato, Littleton

While I agree with the editorial's premise that certain professions might be needlessly regulated, I take exception to your reference to SB107 - Landscape Architects Licensing - among them. The writer is clearly uninformed about the profession of landscape architecture, referring to the term "landscaper" and "landscaping" which have little to do with landscape architecture.

Landscape Architecture is a relatively small (approx 1500 practitioners in Colorado) and fast-growing profession that requires a professional college degree, internship and passage of a national exam in order to practice. Its economic impact is becoming significant, with practitioners in Colorado generating over $300 million a year in fees - none of that having anything to do with landscape construction (or landscaping). The fact that Colorado is one of only two states in the US that has not yet recognized the trend toward uniform standards of practice among the design professions in a world economy is short sighted.

Why regulate such a seemingly a small and non-threatening profession?

Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) has recognized that the practice of landscape architecture does have an impact on public health, safety and welfare. Landscape architects are among the people that design Colorado's public places, including streets, neighborhoods, parks and playgrounds, and both physical and financial injury can often be the result of improper design.

Licensure has long been held to be the best method of policing professions, utilizing a board of peers to weed out incompetents instead of the default method currently in place: litigation and the court system.

Professionals and the impacted industries all support licensure. It is understood among college students and young "entrepreneurs" entering the profession to be a necessary milestone to achieving professional competence. This is also true for architects, engineers, accountants, doctors, teachers and others in Colorado.

Regulation through DORA pays for itself through annual license fees so there is no cost to taxpayers.

Regulation of this profession would increase competition and fairness in the industry. Because most government agencies require a licensed professional to be in responsible charge of public projects, landscape architects are often prevented from submittal proposals or leading design projects for which perhaps they are best suited.

Craig Coronato, ASLA. President Colorado Council of Landscape Architects.

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