The release this week of district plans by the Greater Sydney Commission potentially foreshadows a new era in Sydney planning, which may mean a new look and feel for the city's neighbourhoods and for how we move between them. There is that possibility. But it is also apparent that, for all the power of the documents, the district plans at this stage largely imply the status quo.

Why are these documents powerful? They are powerful because they set out the number of dwellings that councils will be required to help provide in the next five years and beyond. The documents provide the broad framework within which suburbs and centres may change, and within which councils may change them.

Councils do not rate a mention in Australia's constitution. They exist in NSW as creatures of state law. Councils are therefore independent of government only so far as Parliament allows them to be. If the state government, or an agency created by the government – such as the Greater Sydney Commission - directs them to approve a certain number of dwellings within a given period, councils are, subject to other legislation and the messiness of politics, required to comply.

And why do these plans imply the status quo? One reason is that despite their many hundreds of pages, they don't say much. They contain targets for jobs and for housing. They offer demographic statistics. And they include pat descriptions of existing suburbs.