Change, provide, and eliminate provisions of the Professional Landscape Architects Act
LB696 revises the Nebraska Professional Landscape Architects Act and reissues the affected statutes to modernize, clarify, and consolidate the law governing landscape architecture licensure and regulation. The bill updates key definitions, including “board,” “coordinating professional,” “design professional,” “direct supervision,” “license,” and “practice of landscape architecture,” and it more fully describes the scope of professional landscape architecture services. It also clarifies what activities are included in the practice and what activities are excluded, helping distinguish licensed landscape architecture from related work performed by architects, engineers, surveyors, planners, contractors, nursery professionals, and others.
The bill also updates administrative and licensing provisions for the State Board of Landscape Architects. It requires the board to maintain and publish a complete roster of licensees, revises application and reciprocity provisions, recognizes certain out-of-state and Canadian credentials, and sets out more detailed licensure pathways based on education, examination, experience, references, and good character. It further revises certificate issuance, renewal, expiration, late renewal penalties, and continuing professional development authority, while preserving existing licenses until expiration and repealing obsolete sections of law.
LB696 affects the statutes governing the regulation of professional landscape architects in Nebraska by reorganizing and updating licensure standards, board duties, renewal procedures, and enforcement authority. It gives the board clearer authority to administer examinations, adopt rules, issue and renew certificates, maintain public records, and discipline violators through reprimand, probation, suspension, revocation, civil penalties, cease-and-desist orders, and cost recovery. The bill also updates exemptions and cross-professional boundaries, which may affect landscape designers, contractors, planners, architects, engineers, surveyors, nursery businesses, and public or private employers that provide related services.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It advanced through the Legislature with unanimous or near-unanimous votes at earlier stages and passed final reading 47-2, then was approved by the Governor. The available record shows no committee transcript debate, suggesting the measure was viewed primarily as a technical and clarifying update to professional licensing law rather than a major policy dispute.
The main points of potential contention are the bill’s definitions of the practice of landscape architecture and its exemptions for related occupations. By specifying what constitutes licensed practice and what does not, the bill draws boundaries between landscape architects and other professionals such as architects, engineers, surveyors, planners, contractors, landscape designers, nursery operators, and land developers. Those boundary lines matter because they determine who may perform certain design services, use protected titles, or work without licensure. The bill also expands and clarifies disciplinary authority and renewal requirements, but the voting record suggests these changes were not significantly disputed.