J. L. Ward Co. v. Landscape Contractors Board

Petitioner J. L. Ward Co. seeks review of a final order of the Landscape Contractors Board (Board) imposing a civil penalty for operating a landscaping business without a valid landscaping business license. We reverse.

The facts are not in dispute. Petitioner is a residential development and construction business. It develops subdivisions and builds its own homes in those subdivisions. Each of the homes includes installed sprinklers, lawns, trees and shrubs.

An investigator for the Board visited one of petitioner’s subdivision sites in central Oregon and determined that the value of the…