The Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network is ready to step up its urban agriculture game thanks to a crucial assist from the Erie Zoning Hearing Board.
The nonprofit neighborhood organization plans to construct a 1,000-square-foot, largely underground greenhouse in the 400 block of West 19th Street in Erie’s Little Italy neighborhood, where a dilapidated single-family house once stood.
The Neighborhood Network, which serves impoverished neighborhoods in east and west Erie, acquired the property in 2020 and had the house demolished.
Plans call for what’s known as a walipini greenhouse on the site. It is an underground greenhouse with a transparent or translucent roof that is naturally heated and cooled by the earth.