Aura residents, buzzing with excitement over the news of the Aura Town Centre’s official development application, are now wondering: will it be big enough to meet the growing needs of the burgeoning area?

Local resident Pauline Johnson was concerned the plans did not indicate it would be much bigger than the Caloundra Shopping Centre, which has 45 stores across fresh food, fast food, casual dining, health, beauty, travel, fashion and accessories, general services and major banks.

“Shouldn’t be called a shopping centre if just something like Caloundra Shopping Centre – needs to be at least like the centre at Kawana to be called a true shopping centre,” Ms Johnson said.

Other residents were concerned the planned car parking facilities indicated the Town Centre would be too small.

Spanning 16,145sqm, Stage 1 will include a mix of supermarkets, specialty retail, dining, entertainment, and health care services.

But there is concern the plan for 403 basement car spaces and 265 outdoor car spaces will fall short of requirements, not to mention the rapidly-worsening traffic gridlock.

Resident Luke Glover suggested the roads are fixed first.

“It takes 20 minutes to get from Banya to the IGA,” he said.

A Stockland spokesperson said the number of planned car parking spaces for the first stage had been carefully planned.

“As part of the Stage 1 proposal the number of car parking spaces has been assessed and supported by a traffic engineering assessment and has been benchmarked to other similar-sized shopping centres,'” the spokesperson said.

Stockland said with the application officially lodged to Economic Development Queensland “we will be working with them to achieve the required approvals throughout 2025”.

“Following the DA approval, detailed design will be completed alongside leasing so that the centre suits the needs of tenants and customers.

“Once detailed design is finalised and leasing activities are progressing, construction of the centre can begin.”