So maybe a close AI city is the guilty...that makes sense...Thanks a lot

You have to build a city on a certain tile with in the wild lands itself, then it will clear out and you can settle one more location.

i had the same problem once. my solution was simply to delete my own town (luckily it wasn't cery developed yet), but it's a pretty counter intuitive move and i guess many players don't realize why it happens and how to "solve" the issue, so i second the idea of a special rule for wildlands.

or at the very least, have more spots available when you beat the boss or whatever in imperium.  it's a large area so even if you plop down one city too close, you'd still be able to put settle somewhere else.