The Mitchell Chang Foundation, a San Antonio nonprofit, is meeting a long-awaited milestone in efforts to build a playground for residents of all abilities at a new Stone Oak park.

April Chang said in April that her organization is ordering custom-designed equipment from Chattanooga, Tennessee-based playground manufacturer PlayCore.

According to Chang, it will likely take the rest of this year to install equipment that will make up Mitchell’s Landing, an all-inclusive, pirate adventure-themed playground.

Mitchell’s Landing will be located at Classen-Steubing Ranch Park, which the city of San Antonio is developing along Hardy Oak Boulevard with $9.8 million from the city’s 2017 bond issue.

Chang said she, her family and playground supporters are happy that equipment is finally being ordered, adding that the project has been in the works since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re not at the beginning, but we’re at the beginning of the end. Everything is designed,” Chang said.

The playground’s moniker is inspired by April and Marvin Chang’s late son, Mitchell, who at age 3 drowned at a North Side swim school in February 2018.

Mitchell’s parents said they formed the Mitchell Chang Foundation to promote what they called their son’s “fun-loving nature and good story” through positive community service.

The Stone Oak foundation’s initiatives have included building Mitchell’s Landing, which would be San Antonio’s first free, public inclusive playground, April Chang said.

The foundation has been raising private donations toward the $2.2 million playground project; costs include the custom-designed play elements and about $700,000 in infrastructure work that the city is providing as an in-kind donation for the playground site, April Chang said.

City officials said they anticipate completing infrastructure work and the first phase of amenities for Classen-Steubing Ranch Park by late this summer or early fall.

Those initial amenities will include one baseball diamond, two softball diamonds, two soccer fields, one picnic pavilion with a restroom facility, one small pavilion, a concrete trail, and separate natural trails for pedestrians and bicyclists, according to April Alcoser Luna, public relations manager with the city's parks and recreation department.

Chang said the pandemic’s effects—including a global shortage of steel—as well as supply chain issues and rising installation prices, all played a part in prolonging the foundation’s efforts to advance the playground project.

But the foundation also took time to adjust the playground’s design to accommodate a wide variety of disabilities and assistive devices, Chang said.

Another aim of Mitchell’s Landing is to stimulate users’ physical and cognitive abilities, Chang said.

“It has morphed and shifted,” Chang said of the design. “We worked to incorporate all disabilities.”

According to Chang, her late son Mitchell’s love of pirates inspired the playground design, which includes a boat, a marsh and an abandoned Spanish mission.

Mitchell’s Landing will also offer a scavenger hunt, in which visitors of all abilities and ages may find a list of various items and clues around the playground.

“This will encourage collaborative, imaginative play and increases cognitive development,” Chang said.

There will also be a cipher-based challenge for people of all abilities and ages to use mosaic tiles as keys in their adventure in the playground, Chang said.

GameTime, a PlayCore company, will officially recognize Mitchell’s Landing as a National Demonstration Site for inclusive play and youth physical activity, Chang said.

Chang said she feels Mitchell’s Landing and Classen-Steubing Ranch Park both will serve as recreational beacons in Stone Oak.

“This park is going to be a destination, even for people from outside [Bexar County]. This is definitely needed in the area,” she said.