The Crestwood Smart Growth Alliance and the Crest Development Co. have issued an apology for connecting the Crestwood-Sunset Hills Area Chamber of Commerce with a letter titled “CHAMBER ALERT” that recently was mailed to chamber members.

“The Crestwood Smart Growth Alliance and Crest Development Co., and the opinions thereof, are not in any way endorsed or authorized by the Crestwood-Sunset Hills Area Chamber of Commerce. We regret that we have implicated the chamber in any way,” reads the statement released last Friday by the Crest Development Co.

A press release issued by the chamber’s Board of Directors the same day states, “Crest Development Co., in conjunction with the Crestwood Smart Growth Alliance, recently published and distributed a document entitled ‘CHAMBER ALERT.’ The Crestwood-Sunset Hills Area Chamber of Commerce has never taken a position on the issues referred to in this document and we did not authorize the reference to and the distribution of this document.”

An undated letter mailed to chamber members by the chamber last week also noted the organization did not issue the “CHAMBER ALERT,” and stated: “Please don’t be misled.”

The letter referred to a disclaimer on the back page of the chamber’s newsletter: “The Crestwood-Sunset Hills Chamber of Commerce accepts paid advertisements and inserts from our chamber members to be included in the chamber newsletter. Paid advertisements and/or insets are not necessarily the opinion of this chamber.

“Crest’s insert in the July newsletter was paid advertising,” the chamber letter noted.

The Oct. 27 alert issued by Crest Development stated, “Remember the chamber newsletter’s insert in July informing you about Crestwood city administration’s questionable redevelopments? At first the cause for alarm was their misuse of the power of eminent domain. However, the focus of residents and local businesses on Crestwood’s development manipulations has led to the exposure of unexpected, disturbing questions.

“This past Tuesday night (Oct. 21) the city of Crestwood hosted a highly publicized public forum to inform citizens about redevelopment. Armed, uniformed police, at the direction of City Administrator/Police Chief Don Greer, locked out Kelley Isherwood, the chairman of the Crestwood Smart Growth Alliance — who represents hundreds of Crestwood residents and businesses — and anyone else who wasn’t a resident, including representatives of area businesses,” the alert stated.

As reported last week in the Call, Greer announced during the Oct. 21 interactive seminar that it was not “a public meeting” and that several nonresidents had been turned away from the event.

In a statement, the chamber noted a special board meeting was convened to discuss Crest Development’s alert, “which implied the support of the chamber in their disagreement with the city of Crestwood. The chamber executive director, Mary Ann McWilliams, reports the board is working with Crest Development Co. to inform our membership of the misunderstanding …”

Crest’s statement was issued Friday.