If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger loses precious access to the neighborhood Santa Monica Airport he uses to fly to Sacramento, he can thank his own brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver.

The Santa Monica City Council voted in March to ban large private jets from using its airport for fear that planes like Schwarzenegger's Gulfstream IV could crash into neighboring homes if they overshoot the 4,987-foot runway. Shriver is on the council, which voted unanimously for the prohibition.

The ban is on hold, however, after the Federal Aviation Administration obtained a temporary restraining order on Monday. A federal district judge is expected to review the matter May 15.

The Republican governor commutes almost daily from his Brentwood home, often using Santa Monica Airport when flying within California, Shriver said. Schwarzenegger and business travelers prefer Van Nuys Airport or Los Angeles International for longer trips since runways at those airports can accommodate the added weight of extra plane fuel.

For Schwarzenegger, reaching the Van Nuys Airport can mean a 14-mile drive, including a nine-mile slog on the congested I-405 freeway, compared with a trip less than half the distance on city streets to Santa Monica.

Shriver said he hasn't heard from Schwarzenegger yet, but he expects to.

"Arnold will come up with something like, 'Now I have to go all the way to Van Nuys because of Bobby and his communist friends,' " Shriver said, doing his best Schwarzenegger impression with an Austrian accent.

He said he's not sympathetic with the people who've complained to him: "You know, get in the back of your limo and make your calls."

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said he does not know whether the governor is aware of the pending ban.

"I can verify that he has used that airport and other area airports," McLear said.

The FAA contends that local governments have no authority to ban aircraft from airports. It has been negotiating with Santa Monica for several years in response to concerns about the runway's safety.

The Gulfstream IV is a category "C" plane, which has an approach speed faster than the ordinance's maximum of 139 miles per hour.

"These aircraft, category 'C' and 'D' jets, have been landing safely at that airport for years and years and years," said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman. "The issue of safety has to do with the 4,987-foot runway, and all of these planes have performance specifications that show they can land and take off on a runway of that length."

The Santa Monica Airport has been in operation since 1917 and was surrounded by farmland until World War II, said Martin Tachiki, Santa Monica deputy city attorney. During the war, Douglas Aircraft Co. built planes there, and homes for workers sprouted up nearby. It is now surrounded on three sides by residential neighborhoods and on another side by a business park in the land-scarce community.

"Our airport is very tightly constrained," Tachiki said. "There are homes within 300 feet of the ends of the runway. We're concerned because we have no runway safety area. If there's an overrun, an aircraft could conceivably leave the airport boundaries and go into homes."

The growth of fractional-jet services like NetJets has enabled more people to use larger, more luxurious planes without having to buy them outright, Shriver said. In 2007, the airport had about 26 takeoffs and landings daily involving "C" and "D"-size planes, which make up about 7 percent of its traffic.

Shriver said most of the planes affected belong to business travelers, not celebrities.

The governor's plane has come under fire previously for its impact on the environment and for its $12,800 hourly cost, paid for by donors, when he goes on trade missions and campaign trips. Schwarzenegger pays for his own daily flight costs and for carbon credits that finance environmental projects to offset his emissions.

Schwarzenegger routinely flies between Santa Monica and Sacramento, about a 50-minute flight. Each hour, his Gulfstream jet emits as much as 4.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the online luxury journal Helium Report. That's roughly equivalent to what a small passenger car produces over the course of 8,000 miles.

Shriver, an environmentalist, said he thinks the Gulfstream planes have a significant emissions impact, but he is sympathetic to the governor's need to have private transportation because of his popularity.

"He's a person a lot of people wanted to talk to before he was governor," Shriver said. "The privacy concerns are significant. He's buying carbon credits … I think he's probably doing the best he can."

Shriver drew attention after the governor removed him and director Clint Eastwood from the California Park and Recreation Commission earlier this year. McLear previously said the governor only wanted to give other Californians a chance to serve, but Shriver suggested the governor was disappointed in their opposition to a toll road through San Onofre State Beach.

He said he wasn't bitter about his removal from the commission – and he said it had no impact on his decision to vote for the airport ban.