Engineers have some designs on their turf.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: A dispute between Landscape architects and engineers in North Carolina over designing streets and roads - Brief Article

Competition is good; that's one of the bromides of business. But in practice, people tend to believe competition is good for everyone but them.

Take the state's engineers. They have been complaining for as long as anyone can remember that landscape architects should not be allowed to design streets and storm-water drains, though they have done so for years. In March, the Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, which licenses and regulates engineers, got the N.C. Attorney General's Office to side with its charges.

Charlotte landscape architect Ben Simpson says the engineers care about commerce, not the quality of roads. "They're politically strong, and they see an opportunity to edge out competition." His profession's licensing body, the Board of Landscape Architects, asked the attorney general to reconsider its opinion. In August, the AG's office reaffirmed that opinion.

The General Assembly tried to sort out this dispute in 1997. But lawmakers only added to the confusion. They forbade landscape architects from practicing engineering but let them prepare plans and supervise projects "involving the...