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Proponents of a bill that would create new standards for the interior design industry say it would help protect the public from potential hazards. But critics say they’re concerned it would put struggling firms out of business.

would create an interior design board that would regulate the industry and initiate a registration process requiring licensed designers to have at least a bachelor’s degree, said Paul Holvey, a District 8 Democrat sponsoring it.

“It was brought to me by the interior design association (the Oregon chapter of the Interior Design Collaborative),” Holvey said. “They’ve been working on this for several years. The issue is for the design industry to have some sort of credentials for the public to see.”

The bill is slated for review by the House Business and Labor Committee in this legislative session, he added.

The collaborative is pushing for the idea in response to safety concerns, said Alicia Snyder-Carlson, president of IDC of Oregon.

“There is a lot of confusion in the public regarding what we do and the scope of practices that an interior designer does,” Snyder-Carlson said. “We work with (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance; we’re trained to select materials that are safe, meet fire codes, prevent slips and falls; and we work with designs for the elderly and the disabled.”

The board would draw a line between interior decorators, which are generally home consultants that look at space layout, paint colors and other features, and interior designers, who have a more detailed knowledge of materials and compliance and who generally work on larger commercial spaces, she said.

“A designer understands issues of egress and access,” Snyder-Carlson said. “If there’s a fire in your space you’d like to know that the person that did your design knew about fire codes.”

But Diane Plesset, chairwoman of the Interior Design Protection Council-Northwest, says she thinks that’s not really the reason why the collaborative is pushing for the new board.

“Nothing good can be gained by legislation,” Plesset said. “This is going to put a lot of interior designers practicing now out of business. The only ones that will gain any kind of positive effect are the organizations that are trying to bring this legislation.”

Creation of the board and the new rules would give an unfair business advantage to members of the collaborative and would significantly limit the scope of work available to companies that are already struggling in the bad economy, she said.

“They’ve been talking about health, safety and welfare since this began,” Plesset said. “But we have codes we follow when we work. If we have a contractor that doesn’t use those codes, they’re putting themselves on the line.”

She added that creation of the board would not affect her business.

The bill would require all interior designers to register with the board by Jan. 1, 2017. The five-member board would be appointed by the governor and would include three practicing interior designers and two public citizens.

The board would regulate and supervise the industry throughout the state and would control licensing. Licensed designers would be required to possess a bachelor’s or master’s degree, have at least two years of professional experience, pass an examination approved by the board and pay licensing fees, according to the bill.

The board also could issue licenses to designers with at least 10 years of experience in the field and who pass a test on building codes, building systems and construction standards.

The effort would be paid for by licensing fees and would not require any money from the Legislature, Snyder-Carlson added.

“We understand that there cannot be a fiscal impact,” she said.

Fee amounts haven’t been decided, but IDC-Oregon has suggested a $200 to $300 registration fee and a $100 to $200 annual renewal fee for designers.

Amanda Ferroggiaro, chairwoman for the interior design program at Portland Community College, said she thinks the industry would benefit from better definitions of what designers and decorators do, but she added that she’s concerned about the bill’s impact on her students.

“I think something needs to happen; I’m just not sure what,” Ferroggiaro said. “Right now you can call yourself an interior designer without have any formal education. But I’m concerned that the restrictions created by the board would hinder opportunities for my students.”

The legislation also would cause problems for people working in residential design, because it would limit the sorts of buildings they could work on, Ferroggiaro said.

Decorators could work only on homes; larger spaces, like apartment complexes or multiuse projects, would be limited to people with the new designer designation, she said.

“Interior designers are still not going to be architects; they don’t work on load-bearing structures or things like that,” Ferroggiaro said. “I think there needs to be some vetting, and I’m generally behind the bill, but I think I would have to go to battle if I’d have to change the name of my program or how it’s structured.”

PCC’s program requires 103 credit hours, which is close to three years of school, and provides students with an associate degree of applied science in interior design, she said.

The board probably would change some things that those students could do, Snyder-Carlson added.

“For the most part, students going to school in that program aren’t going into broad-based design,” Snyder-Carlson said. “But we feel you can’t learn to appropriately design for industrial spaces in that program.”

The House Business and Labor Committee plans to listen to all comments and look more deeply into the issues before making a decision, Holvey said.

Hearings have not been scheduled yet, he added.

“I think it will be well vetted,” Holvey said. “And certainly if there are concerns we’d love to hear them.”