(UPDATED)

New playgrounds accessible to children with and without disabilities are planned in St. Charles and O’Fallon, with the help of a St. Charles County agency.

The county Developmental Disabilities Resource Board on Oct. 22 approved matching grants of up to $250,000 apiece to help create such facilities in the two cities.

The county board and the cities are working with Unlimited Play, an organization which helped raise money for an acessible playground that opened in 2007 in Lake Saint Louis.

In St. Charles, Parks Director Maralee Britton said plans call for the facility to be in Jaycee Park.

She said $220,000 in city funds have been requested for the project in next year’s proposed city budget pending before the City Council and that $30,000 may be transferred from some other projects.

She said it’s unclear now when construction would begin, with the timetable depending on what items are included in the project.

Britton said the city also needs to consider adding parking and upgrading rest rooms at the park to accommodate the new playground, since it likely would draw visitors from other parts of the metro area.

In O’Fallon, city spokesman Tom Drabelle said the city administration has included in its proposed 2010 budget $80,000 for designing an accessible playground in Westhoff Park. If that’s approved by the City Council, he said, additional money needed to build the facility could come from city funds and private donations in future years.

The county board gets its funding from a countywide property tax.