SAN DIEGO - Ivan Holler, the deputy planning director who has led San Diego County's nine-year quest to overhaul its building and growth guidelines, said Wednesday that he's leaving the county to become planning director of Rancho Santa Fe.

Considered a key to the future development in 3,526-square-mile unincorporated county, the General Plan 2020 is scheduled to finally be approved by supervisors in early 2008. It's the first complete overhaul of the county's planning guidelines since the 1970s. Supervisors have tentatively approved housing, commercial, industrial and road maps that would add another 210,000 to 220,000 people in the unincorporated county without increasing traffic congestion, straining fire, law enforcement and other services, or chomping huge bites out of environmental habitat.

The 48-year-old Holler said Wednesday that he planned to leave the county after more than 10 years on June 15 to take over as planning director of the Rancho Santa Fe Association - the homeowner's association established in 1928 oversees most of Rancho Santa Fe, some 6,200 acres and 5,000 people.

Holler said he had decided to take the Rancho Santa Fe job mainly because he wanted to spend more time with his family, including his two sons.

"My oldest son starts high school next year," said Holler, who coordinated the efforts of roughly 30 planners and officials at the department of planning and land use. "I get one shot at this, and I want to make sure that I'm as available as I can be with him. That, to a great extent, is what led me to accept the offer."

Holler said he unsuccessfully applied for a promotion to become director of the county's Land Use and Environment Group - an appointment eventually given to current director Chandra Wallar - in January 2006. Holler said the decision did not figure into his taking the Rancho Santa Fe job.

Being in charge of the county's long-delayed and often controversy-generating 2020 plan often put the unflappable Holler on the hot seat - to absorb criticism from the many factions who will be affected by the growth guide, from developers, to residents, environmentalists, business people and groups.

However, county Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard quickly praised Holler, saying that although the General Plan 2020 process, started in 1998, has taken much longer than expected, it improved dramatically after Holler was put in charge in 2001.

"The county's loss is Rancho Santa Fe's gain," Ekard said Wednesday afternoon. "He's been a great asset: calm, collected under fire, smart, understands that we're in a political environment and that you're going to have to juggle various political views. And he's incredibly ethical. That's one of the things I really admire and look for in people."

Holler said one of the few low points in his tenure with the county was when some people questioned his integrity in 2006. Members of a group called Fallbrook Fair Plan, who say they oppose development projects in North County's Pala Mesa Valley because they would create traffic, noise and urban sprawl, intimated that Holler was part of an inside deal with developers to allow the projects - because Holler and members of the developments had once worked for county Supervisor Bill Horn.

Holler vehemently denied those allegations at the time. He declined to revisit them Wednesday, but said they still rankled.

"I guess the part I would say was the most difficult was when attacks or complaints were made personal," he said. "That was a tremendous disappointment to me. I just think that's absolutely out of line. It's certainly appropriate for people to disagree with a proposed policy, that's what this process is all about."

Keith Behner, the man whom Holler will replace at Rancho Santa Fe when Behner retires June 18, also praised Holler and the work on the 2020 plan. Behner also recruited Holler to take his place.

"Anytime you have an undertaking of those dimensions (of the 2020 plan) you're going to have criticisms," Behner said. "It's no small feat to try to get this thing done. I think the fact that it is where it is now - all the heavy lifting has been done - that it's approved, at least in concept, is a tribute, in no small measure, to Ivan. He's done a fantastic job under incredible circumstances."

In addition to overseeing the 2020 plan, Holler has also been in charge of overseeing the county's Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan - designed to set aside "ribbons" of environmentally sensitive habitat safe from development around the county - and the county's involvement in fire protection in the county.

Wallar said the county would temporarily fill Holler's spot from within, but hold a national recruiting campaign to find a permanent replacement that could take "several months."

Holler said he is a little disappointed to be leaving the county before the 2020 plan is completely finished. But, he said, he believes that most of the plan is done, and he is confident that his staff members will finish the job.

"I am not the 2020 plan," he said. "I've got a very capable team who have worked alongside me for a number of years, very qualified people who can advance the ball forward. I think we've done some very good things even though it has taken a long time."

- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.