Before the pandemic, Chattanooga Fire Captain Skyler Phillips had an idea most parents in his position would understand. His son Noah is on the autism spectrum, and Phillips wanted a place where Noah could play the way other kids play, without a parent scanning the equipment first to figure out what would actually work for him. That idea sat for years. Construction hurdles piled up. Costs climbed. And on Saturday, September 12, it opened at Jack Benson Heritage Park in East Brainerd as the largest fully accessible play space in Hamilton County.
If you've lived near East Brainerd Road for any length of time, you already know Heritage Park. It's the 22-acre spot off Jenkins Road with the dog park, the old mansion people rent for weddings, and the creek kids wade in every summer. What you may not know is how much bigger, and how much more deliberate, the new playground turned out to be than what was first proposed back in 2017. That gap between the original sketch and what's on the ground now is the actual story here, and it changes how you think about a park a lot of East Brainerd residents have driven past for years without a second look.
From a $1.2 Million Idea to a $2.5 Million Build
The playground was first pitched in 2017. The pandemic put it on hold, and by the time planning resumed, the estimated cost had grown from an initial $1.2 million to something closer to $2 million. Then it kept growing. State Representative Esther Helton-Haynes secured $250,000 in state funding in 2024, calling the project one where "every child deserves to have access to quality recreational opportunities in our community." Hamilton County committed $800,000 on top of that. Even with those two pieces in place, organizers were still short by roughly $260,000, a gap the Kiwanis Club of East Brainerd closed through commemorative brick sales and, memorably, a jail bail-out fundraiser. Kiwanis member Bobby Dann summed up the scale of it plainly, admitting the group had never taken on anything that size before.
By the time the ribbon was cut this month, the total price tag had settled near $2.5 million, with about $2 million of that coming from combined public funding and the rest raised locally. That's a project that got more expensive as it got more real, which is a pattern worth recognizing if you've ever wondered why a park improvement that looked simple on a rendering took the better part of a decade to finish.
What Nearly 17,000 Square Feet Actually Gets You
The finished playground, officially named the Harvesting Inclusive Playground, carries a farm theme and spans nearly 17,000 square feet, up from the roughly 15,000 to 16,000 square feet in earlier planning documents. The project grew again on its way to completion, which tracks with everything else about how it came together.
What sets it apart isn't just size. It exceeds standard ADA requirements, offering 100 percent accessibility across both ground-level and elevated structures, a distinction that matters if you've ever watched a child in a wheelchair get stuck at the base of a climbing structure everyone else could reach. The playground is also split by age in a way that's unusual for a municipal park:
| Zone | Approximate size | Who it's for | What makes it different |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toddler area | ~6,000 sq ft | Ages 2 to 5 | The only municipal play space of its kind in Hamilton County built specifically for this age group |
| Youth area | ~11,000 sq ft | Ages 5 to 12 | Climbing, sliding, and sensory equipment engineered so kids of all abilities can use it side by side |
That first line in the table is the detail worth sitting with. A dedicated toddler space isn't a small add-on. Most public playgrounds treat ages 2 through 12 as one undifferentiated group, which means the youngest kids either get left out of the design entirely or end up on equipment sized for children twice their age. Heritage Park is now the only place in the county's municipal system that solved that problem on purpose.
Darrin Ledford, who represented District 4 on the City Council before becoming Deputy Chief of Staff, put it simply at the opening: "This day proves the power of commitment." Given how many years and dollars it took to get here, that's not an overstatement.
The Rest of the Park Hasn't Changed, and That's Part of the Appeal
If your only reason to visit Heritage Park before now was the dog park, nothing about that has moved. The park still has two separate off-leash enclosures, one for big dogs and one for small ones, with agility equipment and a modest $25 annual family membership fee. The creek that runs through the property is still there for kids to splash in on a hot afternoon, and the Heritage House, the large historic home on the grounds, still books out for weddings and private events at a price that regulars describe as the most affordable venue rental in the area. There's a red barn that draws photographers, a covered bridge toward the back of the property, and shaded walking trails that loop past all of it.
What's changed is the reason to bring young kids along. Before this month, the existing playground was small and largely unshaded, which meant families with toddlers or kids who needed more accessible equipment often had reason to drive somewhere else. Now the same 22 acres that already worked for dog owners, walkers, and wedding parties also works for families who previously had to choose between this park and a different one.
The park's parking situation got an upgrade too. A separate $1.68 million project replaced the old lot with a permeable pavement system designed to help stormwater soak into the ground rather than run off, which sounds like an engineering footnote until you've tried to park at Heritage Park after a hard rain. That project is done, which means less standing water and fewer muddy walks from the car to the playground gate.
Where to Go After the Playground
Part of what makes Heritage Park work as a full afternoon rather than a quick stop is what's within easy walking distance once you cross toward East Brainerd Road. Mojo Burrito sits close enough for a lunch run without repacking the car. Ice Bruster's Real Ice Cream and a Daylight Donuts location are both nearby too, which explains why regulars describe the park as having a good selection of places to eat on both sides of the bridge. None of it requires driving across town, which matters on a Saturday when you've already unloaded a stroller, a diaper bag, and a toddler who wants to see the new slide before anything else.
Why This Is Worth Noticing Now
A park upgrade that took nine years and grew past its own budget twice isn't a small local item. It's a signal about what this specific neighborhood was willing to fund and fight for, driven by one firefighter who didn't let a stalled timeline talk him out of it. Heritage Park was already a place East Brainerd residents used for dog walks, wedding photos, and quiet afternoons by the creek. It's now also the only municipal park in the county built to work for the youngest and most easily overlooked kids in the neighborhood, which is a distinction most nearby parks still don't have.
If you've been meaning to walk the dog, book the Heritage House for a fall gathering, or just see what nearly 17,000 square feet of new playground actually looks like, this is the season to go. The parking lot won't flood, the toddler area is finally built for toddlers, and Mojo Burrito is still right there when you're done.
For more on what's happening around East Brainerd and the neighborhoods near it, the team at Trish Savage Homes keeps a close eye on the corners of Chattanooga and North Georgia where daily life and real estate happen to overlap. Contact us if you'd ever like to talk through what a specific street or neighborhood is really like to live in, not just what the listing says.
