Or if you would prefer not to do that every time, kick everyone out first.
From what was said in the original quote:
after I save, switch the lot zoning to apartment base, save again and leave, once I put a resident in an apartment I get back modern paved roads...very strange looking to say the least. Is there some new special thing one must do in AL to get the road terrain to match with the neighborhood road terrain?
it sounds like kicking everyone out first won't help. I haven't tested this, but it really sounds like katysails is not having problems with the apartment base (unoccupied building), but with the occupied apartment sublot. If I am reading this correctly, then the only possible solution would be to modify the apartment sublot after it is cloned.