Cari Templeton wants to turn down the temperature in Palo Alto's heated debates about housing and growth policies.

For the past two years, as a member of the Planning and Transportation Commission, she has had a front seat at the table as residents debated housing projects, transportation improvements and, most recently, Castilleja School's divisive expansion proposal. Templeton also serves on the Expanded Community Advisory Panel, which is exploring changes to the city's four rail crossings, and has previously served on the North Ventura Community Advisory Panel, which is coming up with a new vision for a 60-acre area anchored by the Portage Avenue campus that until recently housed Fry's Electronics.

A former technical program manager at Google, who retired in 2017 after 10 years at the company, Templeton is undaunted by complex projects with conflicting viewpoints. To help move the city along with its rail project, she had recently created a dynamic matrix that allows the panel to easily rank options according to the City Council's criteria. Now, as chair of the Planning and Transportation Commission, she has worked to change the historically rancorous tenor of discussions. In a recent interview, she recalled an "amazing moment" earlier this year when commissioners agreed to improve how they interact with one another.

"One of the challenges we have in Palo Alto is that sometimes our framing isn't productive," Templeton told the Weekly. "Sometimes, certain ways we phrase things are triggering, for lack of a better word."

Templeton joined the planning commission in 2018 and won a big vote of confidence from her colleagues earlier this year, when they unanimously elected her chair. On a panel that has traditionally split into political camps, she tends to vote with those who support more growth — including Willian Riggs and Michael Alcheck — and she supplied the swing vote that made Riggs and Alcheck the chair and vice chair of the commission in 2019. Unlike other members in that group, however, she seems more comfortable as a facilitator than as an advocate for a particular position, opting to listen to others before weighing in.

While she often speaks in favor of broad goals such as improving bike amenities, building more affordable housing and listening to the community, her open-minded approach sometimes makes it hard to figure out where she stands on specific details. During a Sept. 9 meeting on Castilleja School's contentious expansion proposal, Templeton smoothly navigated the procedurally complex public hearings but offered little in the way of commentary on a project that had undergone four years of analysis. Rather, she largely echoed her colleagues' comments about the adequacy of the project's environmental analysis before voting to approve it.

In a recent interview, rather than answer questions about where she stands on the city's 50-foot height limit or on recent state efforts to relax zoning restrictions to single-family zones, she described her general philosophy about encouraging more housing and finding creative solutions but did not say how she would vote about removing or modifying specific zoning policies.

She similarly did not express any discernible opinions about recent attempts by the state legislature to create new mandates that would allow more density in single-family neighborhoods (the most notable of these, SB 50, and SB 1120, failed in January and in August, respectively), only saying that she would support discussing ways to give property owners more leeway to redevelop their properties.

When asked in a Palo Alto Neighborhoods questionnaire about whether she would support "ending single-family (R-1) zoning" — something that Minneapolis did last year — she called the question an example of "fear-mongering rhetoric from Washington" and said she "reject(s) this line of thinking."

"We will not have important city business used by some politicians to escalate fear and disrupt discussion of zoning changes that may be beneficial for the neighborhood and the city," Templeton answered. "There are times when zoning changes make sense, and there are times when it may not make sense. I prefer to make zoning decisions based on the needs of the neighborhood and the city."

She told the Weekly that her preferred approach to encouraging housing is "getting more creative and being open to suggesting ways to remove barriers," an answer that is more a statement of values than a specific proposal.

"Right now I don't see those discussions happening. I'm seeing a lot of polarization and factoring," Templeton said. "What I hope we can do over the next couple of years is change how we're engaging and find a way to actually hear different sides and find a solution."

When asked whether she supports a business tax, she suggested that Palo Alto's traditional revenue sources (namely, sales- and hotel taxes) have proven unreliable and pointed to Mountain View's recent success in adopting a headcount tax for large businesses with buy-in from the business community. But when asked at a Chamber of Commerce forum about the tax, she called it an "intriguing idea" but stopped short of fully endorsing it.

"I'd like to make sure we take the opportunity to work with our business leaders to understand what makes sense from their perspectives as well," Templeton said.

One issue that she has made a centerpiece of her campaign is racial justice and inclusiveness. She has spoken out about the need for police reform in June, when the nation and the city saw weeks of protests over police brutality and racial inequality. Templeton said she would like to see the city's commission better represent the broader community. She would also like to see some of the calls for service currently handled by police officers shifted to mental health professionals and social workers. She also wants to remove the long-standing policy that bars non-residents from going to Foothills Park unless accompanied by a resident, according to her campaign website.

When it comes to police reform, Templeton wants to create an oversight commission made up of community members, especially those from historically marginalized groups, to oversee police conduct and practices, according to her campaign site. She also supports campaign reform to make it easier for residents to run for council and "reduce the outsized influence of big money on our local politics."

Her positions, much like her conciliatory approach, has won her endorsements from numerous former mayors and present council members, including Mayor Adrian Fine and council members Liz Kniss and Alison Cormack, all of whom vote with the council's more pro-growth camp. The Barron Park resident and mother of two hopes her recent experience in listening, facilitating discussions and forging compromises will give her campaign a boost come November. She stressed in a recent interview that while she supports more housing, she does not have a "housing agenda." Rather, she has a "community agenda" and she wants to have productive discussions with residents about ways to remove existing obstacles to progress.

"Right now, I don't see those discussions happening," Templeton said. "I'm seeing a lot of polarization and factioning. What I hope of the next couple of years is to change how we're engaging and find a way to actually hear different sides and find a solution."

Read profiles of the nine other candidates:

• Pat Burt: Back in the game

• Rebecca Eisenberg: Swinging for the fences

• Lydia Kou: Playing zone defense

• Ed Lauing: A steady hand

• Steven Lee: Proudly progressive

• Raven Malone: Seeking social justice

• Greer Stone: Keeping it local

• Greg Tanaka: Following the money

• Ajit Varma: All business

More election coverage:

• VIDEOS: Watch our debate and interviews with the 10 City Council candidates in Palo Alto

• INFOGRAPHICS: Five issues, 10 approaches: City Council candidates explain how they would improve Palo Alto