A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

A renamed “floodplain overlay district,” on the other hand, might be more palatable to the hundreds of Lawrence homeowners whose property would be affected by proposed floodplain development regulations.

That is why city planners have suggested that the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission consider making some terminology changes when it discusses the regulations Wednesday night.

“Planning staff … can modify the draft floodplain regulations to address the issue of creating a stigma by a label of ‘floodplain,'” planning staffers said in an unsigned memo last week to the planning commission.

The current version of the rules would allow building in the floodplain only if a property owner could produce a hydrological study showing the new structure wouldn’t change the floodplain’s elevation or contours.

The proposed regulations also expand the floodplain to include areas  called the “floodplain overlay district”  that would be affected if the elevation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated, 100-year floodplain was raised 2 feet. The expanded floodplain would include 1,200 additional properties not designated by FEMA, officials have said.

Many of those homeowners have opposed the rules, complaining that such a designation would lower their property values and force them to buy expensive flood insurance.

Thus planners suggested a name change.

“The majority of negative comments were derived from a feeling of stigma that would be associated with a property if it carried a floodplain label,” the memo said.

Planning Commissioner Ron Durflinger was amused by the suggestion.

“We could call it ‘Bryan’s Folly,'” he said, referring to Bryan Dyer, the staffer who has shepherded the regulations through the planning process. “Or we could call it ‘The Sea of (Planning Commissioner John) Haase,'” a vocal proponent of the regulations.

More seriously, Durflinger said a name change might not be a bad idea. But it wouldn’t solve all the objections raised by the regulations, he said.

“I don’t think that just renaming it satisfied all the concerns of those who spoke against it.

“This is not about being technically correct,” Durflinger said. “This is about the real-life issues of perception among people who don’t spend dozens and dozens of hours analyzing these rules.”

Planners also offered another amendment. Under the rules, an existing home in the new floodplain overlay district would have to submit to the new regulations if it was being rebuilt from damage that cost more than 50 percent of its value. Planners are now suggesting that number be raised to 80 percent, so that fewer properties would be affected.

The commission meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.