BRUNSWICK — Maine's congressional delegation said Wednesday that it is pushing legislation to prevent the Department of Defense from accelerating the process of closing the Brunswick Naval Air Station. The legislation would prohibit the Pentagon from closing the base before the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida is fully prepared to accommodate Brunswick's fleet of airplanes.

Lawmakers also said they hope the base can be transferred to the community at no cost. An accelerated closure would leave Brunswick with an empty base, an incomplete plan for redevelopment and no money to maintain the 3,200-acre facility.

In addition to a new air traffic control tower, a new P-3 Orion hangar, two runways, a golf course, a gas station and a nightclub, the base has living quarters and office buildings. While the government spent millions of dollars recently on a hangar large enough to accommodate the next generation of P-3 Orions, Jacksonville has no such facility.

"I think it's important to make sure that an accelerated closure doesn't happen," said Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe during a public meeting at the former Brunswick High School.

"We don't want to wind up in a situation where the base has pulled out and we don't have our redevelopment plans in place," she said.

The Brunswick Naval Air Station is on the Pentagon's list of military bases to be closed.

Gov. John Baldacci has said the base will shut down in 2011, with transfers of equipment and manpower beginning in 2009.

Snowe said she believes the Pentagon should stick as closely as possible to that closure schedule, to give towns in the area the time they need to develop a reuse plan.

Snowe, who was joined by U.S. Reps. Thomas Allen and Michael Michaud, presided over the forum, which was designed to air residents' concerns and ideas for reusing the base.

Wednesday's session came after a top-ranking Navy official told a group of local officials that the government plans to sell the base for fair market value.

That position represents a departure from the Navy's past practice of transferring ownership of facilities at no cost, as was the case for Loring Air Force Base in Limestone.

Snowe and her congressional colleagues said they are working on legislation to force the federal government to convey ownership of the air station at no cost.

A local redevelopment authority could then sell off portions of the base to private ventures, generating taxes for the town and providing money for roads and sewer lines to attract more development.

"I think that a no-cost transfer is essential and pivotal in order to make for a successful redevelopment effort," Snowe said. "It would ensure that the communities are in the driver's seat."

"The loss of Brunswick is such a blow to the region and it adds insult to injury to ask the communities or the state to pay for the abandoned property," said Maine's other senator, Republican Susan Collins, in a prepared statement.

Bryant Monroe, an official with the Pentagon's Office of Economic Adjustment, pointed out that successful sales of federally owned properties in California during the early 2000s "got people's attention right away."

However, Monroe assured officials that the Pentagon would not override the wishes of a local redevelopment authority.

Doug Johnson of Harpswell suggested that the facility be used as an aircraft maintenance and repair facility.

A team of officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Maine Department of Transportation toured the base on Wednesday.

Brunswick officials said the FAA will do a market feasibility study to gauge whether the air station could support a commercial airport. Preliminary work could begin in December.