providing services in connection with the design, planning and construction of such structures. For the reasons stated below, we believe that engineers may engage in the practice of engineering in connection with structures even if the structures have as their principal purpose human habitation or use.
Before discussing the reasons for our conclusion, there are a few observations which are necessary. First, as a review of the case law from around the country on this issue shows, the statutes are ambiguous and the relationship between the practice of architecture and engineering is ambiguous. Second, this issue first arose as a result of the refusal by a local permitting authority to accept plans sealed by an engineer for a structure designed for human use. We must note at the outset that our opinion here will not settle that dispute. Local permitting authorities will decide whether to accept plans sealed by one profession or another based on their interpretation of their local building codes. This opinion will have little effect on that problem, nor is it intended to. Third, from the beginning of this controversy, this office has encouraged the Board of Architects ("Board") and the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers
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