My name is Steven Lefton, RLA and I serve as the President and CEO of Kimley-Horn and Associates, a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For firm with over 300 employees living and working in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  I live and work in Virginia and lead a national firm of over 4,500 professionals.  We provide landscape architecture and engineering services nationwide and in all states both professions are regulated by the state. I am a registered landscape architect here in Virginia, as are many of our employees who work side by side with our engineers and planners to design things such as site plans, plans of development, grading plans, vehicular roadways and pedestrian systems design, stormwater and erosion control plans, and the siting of buildings and structures, all work that localities, the Commonwealth of Virginia and federal agencies require to be sealed by licensed professionals.

Below I have provided important points that I urge you to review so that you understand the adverse impacts deregulation will have for the safety of all Virginian as well as the economic harm and potential job loss this will create in Virginia, shifting high paying professional jobs to neighboring states.

Protection of Public Health, Safety, and Welfare

• Landscape architects directly impact public health, safety, and welfare. Licensure is the most appropriate form of regulation to ensure that the public is adequately protected.
• Licensure of landscape architects ensures that professionals are qualified by virtue of their education, experience, and examination.
• Licensure of landscape architects ensures that untrained individuals are prevented from engaging in professional practice that substantially (or significantly) impacts public health, safety and welfare. Licensed landscape architects fulfill educational training and examination requirements that prepare professionals to protect the public from both physical and monetary harm.
• Landscape architects are called upon for complex services that require highly technical skills, making it difficult for prospective clients to evaluate the competency of professionals. Licensure as a measure of competence can assist consumers in identifying appropriate professionals for design services.
• The scope of landscape architectural work is required by localities and federal agencies to be sealed by licensed professionals. Consequently, the scope of landscape architecture overlaps with other licensed design professionals including architects, engineers, and Class B land surveyors.

Fair Competition and Economic Impact

• Without licensure, landscape architects would likely be prohibited from leading multidisciplinary teams. Currently, landscape architects serve as the prime consultants on projects where they coordinate and administer the services of engineers, architects, and land surveyors.
• Without licensure, landscape architects will be unfairly disadvantaged in the marketplace. Oftentimes, federal, state, and local contracts require the work to be completed by licensed individuals.
• Virginia landscape architects would be excluded from federal, state, and local work in Virginia that requires licensure.
• Licensure of landscape architects is necessary to keep the profession on an equal footing with its related licensed design professions, architecture and engineering. This equality enables landscape architects to lead projects, form certain business partnerships, and serve as principals in multidisciplinary firms.
• Licensure for one profession, and certification, registration, or no regulation for the other, can cause confusion in the marketplace and may be perceived by the consumer as an endorsement of the skill and competence of one profession over the other. Where the professions overlap, it provides a state-sanctioned advantage for one profession over the other. This destroys the competitive, free market in which design professionals compete.

I urge you to quickly abandon this ill-advised pursuit of deregulation and would be happy to share further perspectives with you as a major employer in Virginia and nationally.

Respectfully,