The Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee took testimony Feb. 10 regarding HB 243 which has passed the House and would make changes governing the architects board and the landscape architects board regarding continuing education requirements.
Rep. Schaffer gave sponsor testimony regarding the bill and said, “This legislation will bring Ohio’s continuing education (CE) requirements for architects and landscape architects into alignment with national licensing trends.”
He explained that many architects are licensed in multiple states and having similar CE requirements to the national model “makes the record keeping and renewal processes less cumbersome for the licensee.
“It will also ensure that our state government gives Ohio’s architects and landscape architects an improved level playing field to compete with their counterparts across the country,” Schaffer said.
Sen. Brown asked about the problems created by having different CE standards for Ohio’s landscape architects, and she was told it “can create more work” in getting licenses in other states because the effort already put in to meeting Ohio’s standards won’t suffice elsewhere.
Schaffer told Sen. Yuko that the bill would help the “small” landscape architect to grow his or her business and indicated both the State Architects Board and the Landscape Architects Board would oversee the bill’s enforcement, as they share a common office and staff.