6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 20-26, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com NEWS The acronym will live on under a new owner and a new name at MIIS. The Middlebury Institute for International Studies will become the Monterey Institute of International Studies at Soka University of America in a deal announced on Aug. 19 and expected to close in September. Applications for a 2027 incoming class will be accepted starting Oct. 1. “The world-class graduate programs continuing at Monterey are a strong fit with Soka University of America’s mission and educational values,” Ed Feasel, president of Soka, said in a statement. “Bringing these programs into the Soka community strengthens opportunities for students and faculty while preserving the distinctive academic excellence that has made these graduate programs successful.” Soka currently serves 480 undergraduates from more than 40 countries on its Southern California campus. “If Soka was going to build a graduate program, this is what we would want to create,” Feasel told the Weekly in May. “Our mission is to foster global citizens who lead contributive lives.” Officials at Middlebury, based in Vermont, announced in 2025 they would close down most MIIS programs by 2027. (Middlebury will continue to operate the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies on the MIIS campus, as well as a dorm downtown.) Master’s programs slated to be to cut include environmental policy and international policy/development. On the language interpretation front, the list to keep includes only Chinese and Spanish, eliminating Korean, French, Japanese and more. A spokesperson says the deal includes the entire campus; a price has not been disclosed. Higher Ed Soka University to acquire Middlebury Institute, with plans to keep many programs intact. By Sara Rubin There’s a conundrum brewing inside the private enclave of Pebble Beach. As property owners come forward asking for permits to operate vacation rentals, County of Monterey staff are giving approval for those that meet requirements. There’s a caveat: The owners must obtain permission from Pebble Beach Company for rental guests to use PBC’s private roads. The company is refusing based on covenants, conditions and restrictions against commercial use of homes. Owners are operating the short-term rentals anyway. PBC issued a blanket objection to any short-term rentals in 2024, shortly after the County Board of Supervisors passed ordinances regulating the rentals in unincorporated areas like Pebble Beach. “The plain meaning of the CC&R language bans short-term vacation rentals in the Del Monte Forest. Arguments to the contrary are entirely unpersuasive,” Diane Goldman, PBC’s general counsel, wrote to the County. The permitting process in the Coastal Zone was delayed for nearly a year as the County waited for approval by the California Coastal Commission. That approval came in August 2025. In the months following, permit applications began rolling into the County’s Department of Housing and Commercial Development. As neighbors protested, HCD staff declared their complaints had no standing since staff were following county regulations and the CC&Rs are a civil matter. One of the first permit approvals to be appealed was for a home at 4159 Sunset Lane. The appeal went before the Board of Supervisors on July 7. “On our block we’ve had at least five short-term rentals under the previous loosey-goosey kind of situation and many of them have created quite a disruption to the neighborhood,” one Sunset Lane resident said. Supervisor Kate Daniels, who represents District 5, which includes Pebble Beach, asked for a continuance, pointing to a need to understand the intricacies of the CC&Rs and private road issues. “If we don’t, we’re going to have this same appeal play out over and over and over again,” she said. The matter was rescheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 25. More appeals are likely coming for other permits. Multiple letters were sent ahead of a Monterey County Zoning Administrator meeting on Aug. 13, when four applications in Pebble Beach were heard, including an additional home on Sunset Lane. All four were approved by the Zoning Administrator. Meanwhile, 4159 Sunset Lane is operating as a vacation rental, without the private road permission from PBC. It’s advertised on VRBO, with rates at over $1,300 a night in late August. Joseph Sennish, chief financial officer of Carmel Coast Estates, which manages the property, argues that PBC’s CC&Rs do give owners and guests permission to use the private roads. He also contends that under the Coastal Commission Act, the goal is to promote access, which short-term rentals provide. He sees a way forward for PBC to make money in the face of an aging demographic of golfers shrinking the sport. “They have an opportunity here to say, ‘We have a way to make this work for us,’” Sennish says, suggesting the company could charge guests resort fees. “An adversarial relationship is not good for anyone.” “Scenic Solitude” is how this vacation rental on Sunset Lane in Pebble Beach is advertised. Neighbors complain their solitude is disturbed by such properties. Circular Logic Pebble Beach Company and short-term rental applicants head toward an impasse. By Pam Marino MIIS was founded in 1955 as the Monterey Institute of International Studies, then changed names to the Middlebury Institute in 2015 when the Vermont college acquired the grad school. “We’re going to have this same appeal over and over again.” DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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