Salinas Airshow enthusiasts don''t want to see new homes or office buildings drive out the annual event''s headliners--military jet teams like the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds. But they are worried that the city''s General Plan might send the fancy flyers--as well as existing businesses and future airport development--speeding away from Salinas, taking money and jobs with them.

Pilots and airport business owners say a proposed development area in the Salinas General Plan cramps the airport''s boundaries. They fear that encroaching buildings, homes and roads will limit airport growth over the next 20 years.

"A lot of the city''s future development can come from the airport," says Harry Wardwell, executive director of the California International Airshow. "Limiting the growth there could be a mistake."

But Wardwell says he''s concerned that future development next to the airport could affect that annual Airshow.

In order to host a military jet team, the FAA requires the airfield to have a "clear, sterile flying zone" of one mile in each direction from the center of the show, and a clear zone of 1,500 feet in front of the crowd.

The first draft of the Salinas General Plan shows industrial and residential growth adjacent to the airport, between the east side of the airport and Boronda Road. The planned industrial development is less than a mile away.

"The FAA says we have to have a big sterile area--you can''t have people," Wardwell says. "You can have buildings and roads, but there''s not supposed to be people in those buildings or on those roads."

New buildings next to the airport wouldn''t kill the Airshow, Wardwell says, although they would severely hurt the event. The airshow, minus the Blue Angels, would go on, but fewer tourists would be interested in the smaller program, and less money would be pumped into the Salinas economy.

The Airshow claims attendance of about 90,000 people over the three day event.

"They [the tourists] stay in hotels--the Airshow itself books 300 rooms for our performers. It''s a very busy weekend in Salinas and there is overflow onto the Peninsula. They may go to a winery, they may play golf one day and go to the Airshow the next. They get gas, they eat in restaurants, they stay in hotels and do all of that.

"It would probably affect our crowds, because a lot of people come from all over Northern California to see the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds," Wardwell says. "And it probably would affect the amount of money we raise for charities."

Since 1981, the Airshow has raised more than $5.5 million for local charities.

Although the Salinas General Plan is still in the "preliminary draft" stage--meaning it''s only a first draft of the draft General Plan--airport business owners fear the city''s plan will stunt airport growth for the next 20 years.

"The main concern is that they have boxed in the airport," says Lori Atkinson, who owns Cal-Pacific Airmotive, an airplane maintenance and warbird restoration company at the airport. "There is no longer growth potential. What they are proposing would possibly end some of the business at the airport."

Currently 16 business set up shop at the airport, from agriculture companies and crop dusters to aircraft maintenance and paint shops, in addition to the headquarters of the California Airshow.

While Salinas city planners and council members design a 20-year plan outlining the city''s future growth and development, pilots and airport businesses are in the initial stages of updating the airport''s 20-year master plan.

"We would like to add hangars and businesses," Atkinson says. "We''d like to add a restaurant at the terminal. We have businesses that want to bring in new customers with larger aircraft. Now our agriculture businesses are in jeopardy--crop dusters can''t fly over a populated area."

A map included in the plan also shows potential bypass roads on the western and the eastern sides of the city; pilots and airport business owners say the proposed eastern bypass expressway--with a new interchange at Highway 101 and Harris Road--doesn''t allow enough clearance for pilots to use the airport''s lighted runway.

This means pilots would be confined to the airport''s other runway, one without lights, that''s not equipped for landing in low-visibility conditions such as rain and fog.

"The approach lighting systems helps guide the airplane to the runway," explains former airport manager Jim Chappell. "[Pilots use] the instrument landing system in the summer months when we have a lot of fog--which is almost every day--and in the winter months when we have a storm.

"The eastern bypass location goes right through that approach lighting system. If that [bypass] was to [be built], then the FAA would probably say you can''t have an instrument landing system."

Chappell says he expects some airport business to leave if the instrument-landing runway is shut down. He says less airport business means less revenue for the city.

"The airport has a considerable economic impact on the city and the local area," Chappell says. "Everybody at the airport pays taxes on their airplanes. All the businesses pay taxes on the buildings that they occupy and they employ a considerable amount of people on payroll. Much of that money is pumped into the local economy."

Senior planner Jenny Mahoney says the plan is still a draft, and airport businesses as well as the general public still have plenty of time to give the city input.

"The location of the [eastern bypass] roadway is conceptual--if the FAA doesn''t allow it, we''ll work around the airport," Mahoney says. "We''re not in business to put the airport out of business."

She says the future growth areas will ultimately be determined by the City Council.

The next draft General Plan will be released in May, public hearings will start in July, and the Council will adopt the final plan in August.

Salinas City Councilmember Janet Barnes, who met with airport business owners in February, says the council is reviewing business owner requests, the proposed airport master plan and the economic viability of the community.

"All the letters have been submitted to the General Plan consultant, and they will all we addressed," she says. "We''re still in the discussion stage."