The Contest Over, Residents Consider What Was Won, Lost : Reaction: Some think the decision about the base is a financial disaster. Others see it as a chance for economic renewal.

Like avid sports fans sitting in front of the television to cheer their team to victory, Orange County residents and politicians tuned into a federal commission hearing Saturday to see who would prevail in the hotly debated proposal to close the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“I was up at 7 in the morning, hanging on every syllable,” said Melody Carruth, a Laguna Hills councilwoman who watched the hearing on the C-SPAN cable network. “I wasn’t going to miss it for anything.”

Doyle Selden, a resident of Leisure World in Laguna Hills, said he watched the Washington hearings live but also videotaped it for posterity. “Everybody around here was interested in how this contest would turn out,” he said.

But unlike a sporting event, the outcome of the base closure issue could have far-reaching implications for Orange County residents. Depending on who was talking, the committee’s decision to close the base was either a financial disaster or an opportunity for economic renewal.

It was clear Saturday that there was a larger, perhaps more divisive issue ahead for those who have been following the fate of the base: Should the property be converted into a commercial airport?

“I’m deeply disappointed,” said Carruth, who opposed the closure.

She said that moving the Marine Corps’ operations to Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego County would cost the government millions of dollars more than several other alternatives, such as moving Miramar’s operations to El Toro.

“We had confidence that the base closure process would work in our favor, but that was not the case,” added Carruth, chairwoman of a South County coalition of cities and residents. “So now we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us. . . . I can assure you that South County residents will oppose an international or joint-use airport for that property.”

Marcia Rudolph, a Lake Forest councilwoman who also opposed the closure and is against converting the base to a commercial airport, said that she, too, was “disappointed” by the closure. But instead of complaining about Saturday’s vote, she said she “had to focus” on what will happen next.

“It is obvious that we have to make a contingency plan now on how we will be involved in this situation,” Rudolph said. “As far as an airport being there, our position is no, no and never. It’s that clear.”

Opponents of converting the base to an airport say such a proposal would lead to unacceptably higher noise and air pollution and clog traffic in the area.

“An international airport will deteriorate our neighborhoods,” said Selden, a member of a Leisure World group that wanted the base to remain open. “It will just ruin it. It’s a disaster for us.”

Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner, who is behind an effort to make the base an international airport, said the closure was good news, not bad.

He acknowledged that “we have to be sensitive to . . . concerns about noise and traffic,” but he said that the base “is too valuable of an asset to just be sitting there.”

Furthermore, he said North County residents should have as much of a say in the conversion process as South County residents, who, for the most part, seem against the airport proposal.

“The challenge ahead of us is to get a forum where everyone’s interests can be expressed,” he said.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said he would like to see serious consideration given to the idea of converting the base to an airport.

“I think it should be studied in light of the demonstrated need and demand for additional air service in the county,” Daly said. “There are powerful economic reasons and powerful practical reasons for considering a commercial airport (at the base) as a priority. It could be a convenient modern airport and still accommodate other uses on the property.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said he was not impressed by the arguments of those who said closing the base would waste taxpayers’ money and adversely impact the local economy and work force.

“I think in the long run, the county is going to benefit more by having a productive civilian use of that land, more than a parking lot for the Marines to park their planes,” he said.

Rohrabacher said he supports putting a commercial airport at the base.

“We have a shortfall of airport capacity in Southern California. It would be a crime against future residents of Southern California and Orange County not to make sure we provide something to meet their airport needs,” he said. “We have been handed lemons, let’s make lemonade.”