Funny. I was thinking of building some apartments myself, but not to compare them with community buildings. Because that would indeed not work at all. Too bad.
The only thing you could do (which could be a bit of boring, but with your building creative skills it could turn out to be something) is making on one lot a few houses (under one roof) and putting two or more families there. Although there is just one front door where visitors will ring the bell, you could just lock some of the doors from other sims in the household, so every family has its own living room, bedroom, bathroom etc. That way, it will almost look like an apartment, although it isn't in reality.
[Edited for spelling. Remember that "their" is the possessive form of "they", while "there" is an adverb, noun or pronoun depending on the sentence which is meant to be referring to a position or state of things. - Swede]
