All residential property is already exempt from the split roll initiative (unfortunately), so residential landlords don’t need to claim the small business exemption. As for nonresidential property, if the split roll initiative passes, every single commercial landowner will want to classify themselves as a small business to get the exemption from reappraisal (unfortunately), so I imagine that this will be fairly contentious. As the initiative is written, a small business must (1) occupy the property, (3)(A) employ <50 employees, (B) be managed independently, and (C) own some real estate in California (but not necessarily the property in question?!)