For those of you that don't understand the purpose of this: When choosing new spots to build cities the location they are buildable is based on the total size of the city. So if for example you wanted to construct a city on a tile 8 squares away, you would not be able to construct any new buildings in that direction until you had first placed the city in the spot, as the restriction then reduces to 4 tiles away.
This is usually not an issue when you start next to a wall of water, but if you are in the middle of the map, you may not be capable of expanding your city in any direction, depending on where the optimal tiles have been placed. The fix would hopefully be pretty minor, as the game has an icon placed already in the square you originally built your city. This would just make it less punitive for not expanding immediately.