the build flags can't be chained as I did with the "," so I used another --build-property entry for the maximum_size setting. It looks like items can't be chained together and multiple --build-property entries are required.
arduino-cli compile --verbose --fqbn esp32:esp32:esp32 agoodWatch.ino --build-property build.partitions=no_ota --build-property upload.maximum_size=2097152