Difficulty placing downtown lots?

[RabidAngel]

Hey all,
I did a search to see if this has come up for anyone else, but was unable to find anything on the subject...My apologies if this has already been addressed somewhere.
I've been trying to build up my downtown community, but am finding it exceedingly difficult to place lots within downtown.  Even in places where I've removed certain Maxis lots and have ample space for smaller lot placement...I am finding very few places where it's possible to place any lots.  Has anyone else experienced this?  And is there a way to "reopen" areas for placement since once I've moved the Maxis lots, the areas often become unusable...It's so weird..
damn this game! 
Thanks so much ahead of time for any advice!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I've not noticed there is a problem, unless there is something left behind in decorations, so the first thing I would do is open the decorations menu and check, especially for the little blue boxes!

[RabidAngel]

Yes, Zephyr, you're right about that...I've noticed the same thing only recently and have deleted many of those blue boxes, but I've still run into problems on supposedly clear areas....
Very strange, indeed...

[ZephyrZodiac]

I did notice that sometimes a billboard placed in decorations will stop the lot from placing.  (Maybe Maxis was able to get around that problem somehow, but if you get rid of the lot itself, you leave the original billboard still there, since it isn't part of the lot).  It's funny too, how in decorations, you try to place a tree which is miles from the nearest house, and you get the message that you can't place it in a lot.  Sometimes you just need to rotate the neighbourhood screen.

[Motoki]

Also, if the original lot isn't perfectly flat, the terrain will deform to it. Sometimes when that happens and then you move a lot the game will not let you place another. I've even had cases where it wouldn't let me replace the same lot that was just there. 

If the terrain looks bumpy or not totally level, that may be part of the problem. I know there are some settings you can play with to alter the max angle difference or something like that, but it's been a while and I don't recall off hand how to do it. I know there were some posts on MTS2 about it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

However, that wouldn't explain how one person can replace a lot and another can't.  I think, unless you want to keep the lot for future use, it might actually be better to bulldoze it than to move it.

[lechapeau]

I had this as well. I'd been rearranging and putting my own things in three default downtown neighborhoods.
I came to the tall building...'Trap Door' something...and it just wouldn't go in. I messed around with it moving buildings around it away, I'd already moved all neighborhood decoration...and still it wouldn't place, not even trying with another clean lot. I went to another town and moved things around there, and still the same building plus another one wouldn't go in.
I came out and into another with no problems, then went back to the first, tried again and it went fine this time.
I went back to the other and they both went in that time. So when a building got stuck, if I came out of the neighborhood and back and tried again it was fine....Fiddly but fine!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sounds to me in that case it's a memory problem, ie the game hasn't finished saving the changes before you try to put the house back or do something different, so it still perceives the house as being there, even though it isn't.  By leaving Downtown and going to another hood, then back again, you force the game to complete saving.

[RabidAngel]

AH, good bit of info there...I didn't know about leaving the neighborhood...That would explain some issues I had in the past as well. 
I had the exact same problem moving certain lots, and then trying to put it back in the same spot to no avail..
I'm guessing my current issue has to do with the terrrain levels though, since that didn't fix this problem this time around...
Okay, off to do some studying on adjusting the terrain.
Thank you guys, very much.