YONKERS — This city’s mayor, Mike Spano, likes to stroll along the Hudson River waterfront and marvel at the changes since the 1980s. Hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private investment have transformed a once forlorn riverfront marred by abandoned industry into a vibrant place where people live and play.

But a — up to 600 feet long — to anchor off the shore of the state’s fourth largest city here, just north of New York City, and in other spots stretching some 70 miles north to Kingston, threatens to undo that progress, Mr. Spano said. The plan, by the private maritime industry, would create 10 new anchorage sites along the Hudson River, with more than 40 berths, or parking spots.

The rise of the United States as a major oil producer in recent years is having unintended consequences for picturesque suburban communities that view the Hudson as a majestic backdrop, not a conduit for international trade. They fear that the very quality that makes these towns so charming — unfettered water views — will be destroyed.

In December, Congress ended a 40-year ban on the export of most crude oil produced in the lower 48 states, a move that came as the industry is booming, helped by new methods of blasting through hard rocks with water, sand and chemicals that have opened up areas for oil exploration. As a result, oil production has nearly doubled to more than nine million barrels a day.

But all of that oil needs to go somewhere, and that’s where rail lines and barges — and thus the Hudson River — come in.

Under the proposal, Yonkers and two villages to the north, Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry, would have by far the most barges at anchor, with 16 berths spread across 715 acres on the water. Officials and many residents say the plan would, in a sense, bring the communities that have worked hard to shed their industrial pasts back to the future.

“To reindustrialize the waterfronts of these communities would do long-term damage to what has been two decades of reinvestment taking place on our shores,” Mayor Spano said. “For us to go backward is just unconscionable.”

The proposal for berths on the Hudson came from maritime organizations worried about congestion on the river and the safety of barge operators. Earlier this year, the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey and the American Waterways Operators asked the Coast Guard for permission to establish new anchorage sites on the Hudson.

Congestion at the Port of Albany and around New York Harbor, combined with occasionally hazardous weather conditions, has created a need for places where barge and tugboat operators can stop and wait — similar to planes on a runway.

The Maritime Association, in a letter to the Coast Guard in January, cited the nation’s growing role as an energy producer, adding that boat traffic would increase on the Hudson River “significantly over the next few years with the lifting of the ban on American crude exports for foreign trade.” The letter added that new “anchorages are key to supporting trade.” Barge traffic has already expanded on the Hudson, with crude oil coming by rail from North Dakota to the Port of Albany where it is loaded onto barges bound for eastern refineries.

Amid resistance from elected officials and environmentalists, the Coast Guard said that the approvals process had just begun and that the public would have ample time for comment. The Coast Guard is through early September, and public hearings will follow.

“Once the comment period is over, we will take that and analyze it and figure out the best course of action going forward,” said Allyson Conroy, a chief warrant officer for the Coast Guard. “We could whittle down the number of anchorage sites.”

Because some of the barges will carry oil, some officials and environmental groups have expressed concern that the barges will function as cheap storage sites until the worldwide glut of oil abates. But Ms. Conroy said that was not the case, emphasizing that the berths would resemble parking spaces. “They come here and park and catch up on rest and then move on,” she said.

Still, groups like say that the introduction of so many places on the river for the barges to anchor would pose a number of problems — among them ruining views, generating noise and light pollution, hurting sturgeon habitat and creating unacceptable environmental risks.

Accidents involving crude oil are notoriously difficult to clean up, said John Lipscomb, the boat captain for Riverkeeper. “Trying to corral crude oil in a moving river is virtually impossible,” Mr. Lipscomb said. “Riverkeeper and many others in the Hudson Valley would prohibit any transport of crude oil on the river.”

Others worry that parked barges filled with millions of gallons of crude oil could become terrorist targets. State Senator Terrence Murphy, a Republican, said such a scenario, on its own, made the plan untenable. His district includes a proposed anchorage site that would contain three berths off Montrose Point in northern Westchester County.

“You’re going to have three barges sitting right there,” said Mr. Murphy, who has begun a . “Could you imagine blowing holes in them and letting all the oil leak into the Hudson River? Or you blow them up and set them on fire?”

But for many residents, the notion of unspooling a string of barges on the river, whose history and scenery helped win the Hudson River Valley a coveted designation, makes little sense.

Just north of Yonkers, the villages of Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry — affectionately called the “river towns” — have made their own investments in the waterfront. Many residents were drawn to the communities because of the river and the backdrop of the Palisades.

Bill Fernandez, of Dobbs Ferry, keeps his 21-foot sport-fishing boat at a tidy marina in Hastings, called Tower Ridge Yacht Club. When he learned about the plan, he immediately wondered how he would navigate around walls of steel. Then he remembered the views.

“It’s fine when they are moving,” Mr. Fernandez, 49, said referring to the occasional passing barge. “But to have them parked here would be horrible.”

Officials in both Dobbs Ferry and Hastings-on-Hudson said they planned to pass resolutions opposing the anchorage sites. Last year the waterfront park in Dobbs Ferry reopened after a $7 million renovation, with fresh paths and landscaping, as well as a new fishing pier and floating dock.

“We have a new beautiful park that encourages people to use the water,” said Mayor Hartley Connett of Dobbs Ferry. “People are kayaking more and canoeing more. The idea that you’d have these giant floating structures is at odds with that. We are going to do everything we can to fight it.”

Perhaps sensing the growing pushback, the Coast Guard has gone to lengths to explain that the plan was not of its making. “This is nothing that the Coast Guard proposed, but is something that has been asked of us,” Ms. Conroy said.

Nonetheless, she said, there were real concerns about river safety. “Imagine a truck driver who is driving across the country and needs to sleep, eat and rest,” she said. “On the Hudson, the distance is not as great, but if you add environmental factors like fog and ice, it can be very tricky. We want to make sure that maritime traffic is safe.”