Flattening land

[wwcenter 0]

Is there any way to flatten a small part of an existing city without obliterating half the city? I use ctl alt shif God mode to get the original terrain tools, choose soften terrain and shift 1 or ctl 1 whatever it is, and the cirlce is like the size of a dime, click once on an unoccupied area, and bldgs that are no where near this empty area all crumble and the city is ruined. I don't get it. Its the same with any terrain tool I use, like flatten etc, tiny area, yet it wipes out half the city. Am I doing something wrong? Yes I guess I am--wiping out my city.
Puzzled Anna

[mayormommy 8]

Use single road tiles instead for flattening very small areas - see Darmok's or Jeronij's city journals for examples. A slope mod may also help.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Also, when you want to do very small areas, zoom up to size 5 or 6.