Last week, after the Newton-Needham Chamber released the results of a poll of local business people about the Austin Street project, a few aldermen and several participants here asked if I could break down the results to include only “Newton based” businesses.

It was a reasonable request and I’ve finally had a chance to do so

First here’s results the Chamber originally released from all survey respondents to this question:

Given all you know about the proposal would you like to see this proposed project? (all respondents)

Approved by Newton Aldermen: 47%

Rejected by Newton Aldermen: 21%

Modified further: 7%

Undecided: 9%

No response: 16%

And here’s the data for the same question from Newton-only based businesses:

Given all you know about the proposal would you like to see this proposed project? (Newton-only respondents)

Approved by Newton Aldermen: 53%

Rejected by Newton Aldermen: 29%

Modified further: 9%

Undecided: 9%

No response: 0%

FYI: Of the 183 individuals who participated in the survey 122 respondents were from Newton (67%), 17 were from Needham (9%) and the remainder either said “other” or did not respond.

And for those wondering what the 9 percent of Newton respondents might have had in mind when responding “modified further,” here again are the Newton-only results:

Since the project was originally proposed, the developer has reduced the number of residential rental units for the project from 80 to 68 apartments. Do you consider this (Newton only results)

An improvement: 22%
A loss of needed housing: 31%
Not small enough: 31%
Undecided: 15%
No response: 1

Since the project was originally proposed, the developer has reduced the square footage for retail space by 45 percent to 5,000 sf. Do you consider this (Newton only results)

An improvement: 19%
A loss of needed retail space: 38%
Not small enough: 19%
Undecided 24%
No response: 1%

Since the project was originally proposed, the developer has increased the amount of street level parking spaces from 85 to 127 public spaces (i.e. the same amount of public parking currently available.) Do you consider this (Newton only results):

An improvement: 61%

Not enough parking: 22%

Too much parking: 12%

Undecided: 3%

No response: 2%