RICHMOND, Rhode Island — An “adult” bookstore that sought to set up shop in the town’s downtown business district cannot do so because such use is prohibited under an amended ordinance, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Stephen P. Nugent said, in a recent decision, that the property owner, Martel Investment Group, of Cranston, had failed to comply with the town’s previous ordinance — which didn’t specifically address such use — and “therefore Martel did not acquire any vested right to change the use of the property from retail to adult entertainment business.”

Nugent also ruled Martel was not entitled to monetary damages because it failed to notify the town properly of the claim.

Under state law, a property owner has to notify a community of monetary damage claims at least 40 days prior to filing legal action.

Elizabeth McDonough Noonan, Martel’s lawyer, declined comment late last week, saying she had not seen the decision. She did not say if there are any plans to appeal the decision.

Martel Investment Group bought the 3.27-acre parcel, once home to a Bickford’s Family Restaurant, in September 2005 and started the process to change its use from restaurant to retail.

While it didn’t officially spell out its proposal, plans submitted to the town that fall showed pornographic-video viewing booths, confirming a rampant rumor that the retail business involved adult entertainment.“During the fall of 2005, the town took steps to regulate adult entertainment via its ordinance, apparently in response to learning of Martel’s intended use for the property,” Nugent wrote.

In December 2005, the town informed Martel the use change from “restaurant to retail” would require a development plan review. Martel did not apply for the development plan review or for approval for the use change from the Planning Board.

Still, the town building official issued the necessary permits so Martel could start renovation work.

On Jan. 3, 2006, the town approved zoning law amendments that defined “adult entertainment business” and restricted its location to areas zoned industrial.

Martel applied for development plan review on Jan. 20 of that year. The town said it would not perform the review, citing a conflict with the zoning amendment.

Martel filed a Superior Court action in May citing the expenses in which it had already incurred and the reliance it placed on the building permits the town had issued.

Martel asked the court to prevent the town “from enforcing the amended ordinance because of Martel’s reasonable reliance on the building permits.”

But Nugent said the building official issued the permits needed for the renovation work “in direct contravention of ordinance provisions.” Nugent also found no merit to Martel’s assertion that the town had violated its due process rights by refusing to conduct the development plan review.

Nugent dismissed without prejudice Martel’s claim for intentional interference with contractual relations, allowing Martel to reopen the issue.

Residents and town officials who had objected to having an adult entertainment business in the town’s main drag near the Arcadia YMCA, the site of a daycare facility, welcomed the judge’s ruling.

“I am excited,” Council President B. Joe Reddish III said. “That type of business is inappropriate,” he said, noting that it doesn’t fit into the vision the town has for the area.

“We have a YMCA. We have a pond. And some day, it’ll become a recreation area,” Reddish said, referring to recent design proposals presented by a group of landscape architecture students from the University of Rhode Island that envisioned a park by Canob Pond with a greenway connecting it to another park by the Wood River at the western end of the Wyoming village.

An adult entertainment business in the center of town is “bad for the location,” concurred pastor Donald Butera, of the New Hope Chapel. “It doesn’t reflect who we are as a town.”

“I don’t really [oppose] it for religious purposes,” the pastor said. “It just doesn’t make sense for the town.”