In December 1987 appellee Charlock Investments, Inc. filed a petition for injunction and mandamus, seeking both to enjoin the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners from keeping a road closed and to order the Board to maintain the road open for public use. Charlock owns 568 acres of undeveloped land fronting the road. Appellant Carnes owns the "horse farm," a tract of land through which the road runs. In January 1987 Carnes and her sister asked the Board to close the portion of the road running through their property and the Board closed the road without notice. In May 1987 after the Board had received complaints about the closing, it scheduled a public hearing and to give notice posted two signs at either side of the closed portion of the road. At the hearing, the Board voted to keep the road closed. At the trial on the petition for mandamus, witnesses testified that the road was used for illegal hunting and illegal dumping of trash. The Director of Engineering for Gwinnett County testified that the road was winding and steep, with several blind curves, and that head-on collisions were possible. It was also clear that there was an alternate route to Charlock's property. In May 1988 the trial court granted Charlock's petition for injunction and mandamus, and ordered the road reopened. The procedure for abandonment of a public road in a county road system is codified at OCGA 32-7-2 (b) (1): When it is determined that a section of the county road system has for any reason ceased to be used by the public to the extent that no substantial public purpose is served by it, the county. . . after notice to property owners located thereon, may declare that section of the county road system abandoned. . . . The trial court held that Charlock never received proper notice under the statute. The court also held that under OCGA 32-7-2 (b) (1) the Board could not close the road unless it had ceased to be used by the public to the extent that no "substantial public purpose" is served by it. The court explained that when the road was closed in January, 1987 it was still serving a substantial public purpose because school buses and cars used it, and the county considered these facts when they included the road in a bond issue for paving, and because the commission spent $61,750 to build a culvert across the road. 1. Mandamus will issue against a public officer under two circumstances: (1) when a petitioner has a clear legal right to the relief sought, and (2) when there has been a gross abuse of discretion. See Dougherty County v. Webb, 256 Ga. 474, 475-76 ( 350 SE2d 457) (1986). The function of the Board was to determine whether the road served a substantial public purpose. If the Board determines that a road has ceased to be used by the public to the extent that no substantial public purpose is served by it, then the Board may exercise its discretion to close the road. The function of the trial court in a mandamus action is to decide if the Board's action was a gross abuse of discretion. We hold that although the public used the road to some extent, the Board's decision to close the road did not amount to a gross abuse of its discretion. The Board's decision was supported by the fact that the road was used for illegal purposes, and was winding, steep and hazardous. We therefore reverse the trial court's order granting the injunction and mandamus. The Board's decision remains in force. 2. In our view, OCGA 32-7-2 (b) (1) requires merely that notice be given before a road is declared abandoned. Lack of proper notice is not a ground for granting a petitioner in mandamus the ultimate relief of ordering a road reopened. Charlock sought an order to compel the road reopened, not an order to compel notice. Even if an order to compel notice had been warranted, Charlock is not entitled to a judgment ordering the road reopened. Hurt, Richardson, Garner, Todd & Cadenhead, Pierre Howard, Jr., James D. Comeford, G. Gibson Dean II, for appellees. | 
