Community Projects, in English context, refers to projects that a whole community works on and provides resources for. Take the early days of Sonic 2 HD for example. Your neighbors do nothing more than suggest stuff and pay minuscule amounts of money for the projects. I can see why they changed it.
Public works' projects actually make sense to me. Where I live in the middle of nowhere America, the division of the town government that take care of beautifying the town is called "Public Works." When I think of Community Projects/Service, I think of jailbirds and drunk drivers picking up litter along the side of the road.