Rancho Niguel was a 13,316-acre (53.89 km2) Mexican land grant in the San Joaquin Hills, within present-day Orange County, California.
He was a "judge of the plains" at Los Angeles in 1844, and justice of the peace at San Juan Capistrano in 1846.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored.
[8] Juan Avila retained ownership of Rancho Niguel until 1865, when after the droughts of 1863-64, he sold the property to John Forster.
He worked on Rancho San Joaquin, and subsequently went into the sheep raising business for several years.
[citation needed] Aliso Canyon was spared from development when about 40 land parcels were acquired by the county for use as a park, the largest in 1979 when the Mission Viejo Company donated 3,400 acres (1,400 ha).