i was told to ctrl while laying zones to zone for odd sized and big area zones... but i am having an issue with doing that, if i ctrl while laying zones (doesn't always do this, but it does this more times than it works right) once i lay the zone there is no color indicating that the area is zoned, and nothing develops there, if i query the area, it says 'zoned land' but there is no green (residential) or blue (commercial) and nothing will develop in that area. in the ctrl + lay zones that did show the green or blue zone colors do get development, and bigger zones do develop, just the areas that i zoned for zones that there is no color marking won't develop, i know they're zoned for development because query says 'zoned land' but there is nothing basically if there is no zone color marking that I zoned for development, is just land wasted in my city.
If you drag zones over roads then they tend to do this. As long as you keep to one side of the road or street then you will be fine.
The land isn't wasted, you can always zone over.
On the plus side, this method is very good if you want roads lit through rural areas or between zones. Most of the roads in my area are lit where there is no development.
Keep at it!
It still won't if i zone over, (do I need to dezone first?) and no I am not over roads, is this problem present with unzoneable terrain as well?
I've always found that you need to de-zone the area of existing zones first, then you can rezone using ctrl + zone tool.