I’ve owned two houses in Rockport Village, one for 40 years, and have had a magnificent view for 40 years.

Now the Smith family from Camden is planning a huge ugly hotel, which will plug the open area next to the Shepherd Building and obscure my wonderful view forever.

There are many reasons why this hotel would be a disaster for Rockport and so far the appeal to the Rockport Zoning Board has been focused on parking.

Certainly parking would be a problem. On summer nights restaurant guests, concert-goers and dog walkers would have to compete with hotel guests for space. The valet-driven cars would zip up and down the streets making it dangerous and difficult for everyone. I’ve walked home in the dark for years from concerts at the Opera House and felt in danger of being hit. Now it would be worse.

But there are problems with this new hotel that are worse than parking.

A huge modern hotel at the heart of its most important street would ruin one of the most beautiful towns in New England.

Take a walk around Rockport in the winter and you will see why in every season Rockport is unique in its beauty. It’s a village of hills surrounding a perfect harbor. The ups and downs, the ins and outs, the trees and bushes, and most important, the buildings, are at interesting angles. There is always, always, a feeling of intimacy and airiness, of surprise and sometimes even mystery. There is always SPACE between structures.

Most towns, Camden, Belfast, Rockland, are towns on flatter grids. They too have their charms, but the charms are harder to come by. Almost anywhere one looks in Rockport is enchanting. Central Street, its main street really, with its Union Hall, Shepherd Building, with it two restaurants, its book store and Opera House, is perfect as it is.

The new hotel, if allowed, would strip away the entire west side of the historic Shepherd building (which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places), obliterating its three-dimentional geometry. It would force it to become only a component of a sinister fortress-like wall, a wall imprisoning the street and denying us all the beauty beyond.

People who love Rockport, whether they live there or not, or whether they live there only in the summer, should let the Rockport Zoning Board of Appeals know they do not want this treasure of a town violated by an oversized hotel.

Andy (Ann) Austin Cohen lives in Rockport