Two letters to the editor in the March 3 Boston Globe, one by an Arlington Town Meeting member, make basic and essential points about development along Route 2 affecting Arlington:

by Brian Rehrig of Arlington

NIMBYism is easy. It requires little thought or judgment, just a mindset of "don’t build anything near me, and don’t bother me with facts." Paul McMorrow falls prey to its counterpart: the assumption that any opposition to a development proposal is based on nothing more than selfish, unthinking NIMBYism.

In his Feb. 28 op-ed "The NIMBY playbook," McMorrow dismisses the fight against development of the Belmont Uplands site adjoining the Alewife Reservation as snobbish opposition to affordable housing, ignoring that the opposition is led by the Belmont Conservation Commission. This is a debate about the land, not about any specific project.

The following was submitted by Ellen Mass, of Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR), one of the groups opposing the Belmont Uplands project

Maintaining open spaces at the Alewife Reservation is a battle that shows no sign of abating.  Even as global warming ensures more heavy precipitation frequently flooding the entire area (March 2009), the multimillion-dollar development plan for “Discovery Park,” situated on a delicate “floodway,” continues to move forward.

That development along with four others planned for the area occupy the FEMA floodway and 100-year flood zone, increasing the likelihood of more frequent flooding and threatening the Reservation’s biodiversity and increasing displaced water runoff.