Parking in Onset can be a headache, especially in the summer, and the town is working with residents to figure out how to manage the limited space in the village more effectively.

Wednesday evening at Bay Pointe Country Club, residents were presented with a summary of possible strategies for managing parking in Onset.

Strategies included parking permits to generate revenue and protect residential streets, expanding and upgrading parking lots and adding more on-street parking.

One proposal is to implement a parking permitting system that would charge different rates for resident, renters and people who work in Onset. The revenue could be used to improve signage, pave dirt parking lots, install more lighting or make other improvements.

One resident suggested using the revenue to bring lifeguards and trash barrels back to Onset Beach.

"Parking is a resource," Schrieber said, in that a lot of people want to park in Onset and right now the village is essentially giving away a valuable resource.

Another suggestion is to "formalize" the parking lots at Hynes and Lopes fields with signage, lighting and pavement, and to add on-street parking streets that could include West Boulevard, South Boulevard and West Central Ave.

One unfortunate finding was that among visitors who were surveyed, 2/3 said they'd come to Onset before and left because they couldn't find parking. On the up side, 36% of visitors surveyed said they'd spend $10 on parking to spend the day in Onset.

One of the suggestions for improving safety is that the intersection of Ocean Ave. and East Boulevard be reconfigured. The intersection near the Stone Bridge currently has traffic coming from multiple directions. Residents at the forum expressed concern about ladder trucks being able to get through a redesigned intersection.

"What you're telling me you don't like is exactly what we didn't like when we saw this intersection," said Schrieber. "The basic configuration of two Ts is a lot safer than what you have now."

The transportation consulting firm Nelson Nygaard solicited further input at the forum.

Last July, Nelson Nygaard came to Onset to solicit input from residents on how to more efficiently manage parking in Onset Village. Maps of the village were rolled out on tables, and residents were given Post-it notes on which to write down their concerns.

Consultants were also on the ground in Onset surveying people, and observing where people park on weekdays, weekends and during large events. An online survey was posted on the town website as well.

People were given a sheet describing the strategies and a separate sheet on which they could rate each strategy numerically to indicate how high a priority each issue was to them.

"We're going to end up with a set of recommendations and a report that will go to the town," said Community and Economic Development Authority director Salvador Pina.

The report should be done in three to four weeks.

Pina emphasized that the ideas being presented are suggestions, and that soliciting public input is an important part of the process.

The study is being conducted with a $10,000 grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which the town Community and Economic Development Authority matched with $10,000 of its own.

Forty-four percent of people surveyed said that safety was their biggest concern. Availability and convenience are also important to residents.

Also a concern among residents is that residential streets become on-street parking for people visiting Onset, leaving little parking for residents and, some people say, blocking driveways.

"A lot of what we heard is residential side streets are being overrun," said Jason Schrieber of Nelson Nygaard.

Schrieber emphasized to the residents in attendance that there is space to park in Onset, we just need to figure out how to use it.

"You don't have a parking supply problem, you have a parking management problem," he said.