David Jarrett Details from a building within one of the two proposed districts.

A critical hearing regarding a proposed landmark district on East 10th Street has been expedited due to a controversial application for an addition to a building in the area, the Landmarks Preservation Commission revealed today.

Last week, the real estate magnate Ben Shaoul applied for an additional floor to 315 East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park, which he had recently purchased. The rooftop addition, which would be a departure from the 26 buildings – most of which are four-story 19th- and 20th-century dwellings – that line the block, garnered the attention of the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“The reason we’re scheduling the date earlier than we planned is that the Department of Buildings notified the Commission’s staff this past Sunday that the owner of 315 East 10th Street had filed an application for a permit to construct a rooftop addition that could potentially affect the character of the proposed district,” wrote Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Commission.

David Jarrett Another building within the proposed districts.

Following the public hearing on Jan. 17, the Commission will vote on whether to landmark the buildings, which would essentially preserve their exteriors as-is. The district would also prevent the rooftop addition from being built.

In a report, the Commission cited the historic value of the block of East 10th Street. “The entire 19th- and 20th-century history of the East Village is reflected in the buildings of the proposed East 10th Street Historic District, from its early development as a fashionable residential community comprised of elegant dwellings to its subsequent transformation into an immigrant neighborhood filled with purpose-built tenements and converted row houses.”

Earlier this year, a coalition of religious leaders expressed their opposition to the landmark district — along with a much larger one centered on Second Avenue — because it would, they said, create an unbearable financial burden. The public hearing for the larger district has yet to be scheduled.

Rooftop additions to two other buildings in the neighborhood owned by Mr. Shaoul have been the subject of controversy since 2008.

Correction | 8:50 a.m. An earlier version of this article misstated the date of the public hearing. It is on Jan. 17, not Jan. 12.