Photo by tedeytan.

Barracks Row is known for its transformation into a vibrant commercial corridor on Capitol Hill, featuring businesses, bars and restaurants. It may soon have a medical marijuana dispensary, too.

At noon today, applications for licenses to run the five dispensaries which will provide qualifying patients in the District with medical marijuana are due. One hopeful applicant is eyeing a location in the heart of Barracks Row, an 850-square-foot storefront that currently houses a Popeye’s Chicken.

Mike Cuthriell, who hopes to win a license to open the Metropolitan Wellness Center dispensary, originally had found a location in Ward 5, but a recent change-of-heart by the landlord forced him to look elsewhere. According to Cuthriell, the landlord backed out of the deal after a recent series of heated debates in Ward 5, where residents complained about the potential clustering of the program’s 10 cultivation centers.

While cultivation centers are limited to areas zoned for light manufacturing (according to the City Paper’s Lydia DePillis, that’s less than five percent of the city’s land), dispensaries can set up shop in commercial districts provided they remain at least 300 feet away from preschools, primary or secondary schools, and recreation centers. That means that dispensary applications may be more dispersed across the city than cultivation centers, which were limited to small stretches of land in a few wards.

Once the applications are all turned in, a six-person panel of city officials will review and score them. Those that pass initial scrutiny will be passed on for comment to ANCs, which then have 30 days to lodge any complaints. By March 30, the director of the D.C. Department of Health will announce the five winning applicants.

City officials expect medical marijuana to be available to patients by mid-2012.