Why Is a Licensing Board Trying To Shut Down a Small Business Owner?

As highlighted by Vice, possibly unconstitutional occupational licensing laws are forcing an entrepreneur to pay a large fine and shut down his business. 

Ryan Crownholm, who owns and operates MySitePlan.com, was issued a $1,000 citation and asked to suspend his business operations after a California professional licensing board claimed that Crownholm and his company illegally practiced land surveying without a state-mandated occupational license. 

Mr. Crownholm’s company allows people to purchase maps of their property. These maps are developed using entirely pre-existing information and images from places like Google Earth. This means that anybody with access to Google Earth could theoretically assemble the same product as Mr. Crownholm. 

With the objective of occupational licensing being increased consumer health and safety, it appears as if regulating a business that simply compiles already available data is inappropriate.

In addition to not presenting any threat to public safety, Mr. Crownholm’s website has a disclaimer stating, “THIS IS NOT A LEGAL SURVEY, NOR IS IT INTENDED TO BE OR REPLACE ONE,” an About Us page that states the company uses publicly available information to create its drawings, and language saying their product is not a substitute for a required surveyor, engineer, or architect stamp.

The licensing board’s complaint stems from language that requires anyone “depict[ing] the location of property lines, fixed works, and the geographical relationship thereto” to receive an occupational license. This language cited as justification for their actions is both broad and vague. In fact, if you think about how this language could be applied, it is totally reasonable to come to the conclusion that anyone who’s drawn a map in the state of California without a license is breaking the law and should receive the same penalties as Mr. Crownholm. This is obviously a ludicrous notion. 

The final aspect of this situation that highlights the unnecessary use of government regulation is that building departments accept drawings of site plans from those not licensed as surveyors. They even provide instructions to those without the appropriate occupational license on how to create their own site drawings. 

Utah’s lawmakers and licensing boards must learn from stories like Mr. Crownholm’s. Licensing boards should not be agents of abuse that stifle small business owners and innovative ideas. Instead, lawmakers and the boards that carry out state occupational licensing laws must remember their purpose of protecting consumers’ health and safety.