Zoning matters. Initially, it’s just about getting started. But as you buy more tiles or change your plan, you may want to turn a neighborhood into a block of shops. Or, perhaps you’ve zoned something you didn’t want to. Here’s how to dezone all zone types in Cities: Skylines 2.
How to Dezone in Cities Skylines 2
- Open the Zones tool menu (found to the right of the Demand meters)
- Choose a brush type (Fill, Marquee, or Paint).
- Hover over any placed zone tile or block on the map.
- Fill Tool: Press RMB.
- Marquee Tool: Press RMB for a single block; press, hold, and drag to draw a rectangular or square box around multiple zone squares.
- Paint Tool: Press RMB for a single block; press, hold, and drag to remove zone blocks in up, down, left, and right strokes.
This doesn’t apply to specialized industries like forestry, which is also found in the Zones menu alongside RCIO. Instead, these act as placeable service buildings that are destroyed by the Bulldozer.
Simply demolishing structures with the Bulldozer only removes an RCIO building temporarily. It “resets” the structure’s design, pulling from a random pool of North American or European blueprints. Bulldozing properties like this is a quick way to get the Squasher-Downer achievement for destroying 1,000 buildings, but it won’t change the zoning or keep a store or house from popping up repeatedly.
What’s the Best CS2 Dezoning Tool to Use?
I think the best dezoning tool in Cities: Skylines 2 is a toss-up between the Fill tool and the Marquee tool. Each has its uses, depending on the need.
- The Fill Tool is perfect for removing large swaths of residential, commercial, or industrial at a time.
- The Marquee Tool is perfect for placing or removing specific blocks and columns to create small, medium, and large buildings.
- The Paint Tool is the least effective. I never use it for placing zones or dezoning and find that the Marquee Tool works just as well, if not better, in every situation. The Paint Tool is too haphazard and often creates odd shapes that don’t take full advantage of the landscape.
What Happens if You Accidentally Dezone an Area?
I’ve been a little overzealous sometimes and accidentally dezoned an apartment building or shopping center. In Cities: Skylines, doing so would remove the buildings quickly. However, CS2 handles things (thankfully) a little differently.
- When you dezone an established area in Cities: Skylines 2, the buildings are condemned for a short time, showing a beige and brown icon with a house and a red X through it.
- Simply pause the game or quickly rezone the section, and the building will usually fix itself immediately and return to its original design.
There are times this may not happen, however, especially if the terrain has changed since the structure was built. This can happen by zoning new areas nearby, building roads, or using the game’s terraforming tools. I’ve had this happen to multiple buildings on maps like Waterway Pass, where the elevations change regularly.
How to Rezone Without Removing Zones First
You don’t have to remove zones to rezone. In fact, I rarely do when dezoning an area. The most efficient way to change low-density residential to high-density residential or commercial to industrial is to paint a new zone type over the old one.
But that’s how to dezone in Cities: Skylines 2. For more tips and tricks, including how to build quays or how to get more customers for commercial areas, click the links or head over to our CS2 guides page.
